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BUDDHIST ART
IN ITS RELATION TO
BUDDHIST IDEALS
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BUDDHISM IN
JAPAN
PLATE I
Amita TRIAD RISING OVER HILLS
TRADITIONALLY ASCRIBED TO Esuin Sozu GENSHIN
JAPANESE, 942-1017
Owned by the Konkai Kémyo-ji, Kyéto,
and now deposited in the Imperial Museum, Kydto
Tuts group of Amita Buddha with Kwannon on the right
and Seishi on the left is generally believed by critics to be
a work of the Kamakura period (thirteenth century); but in
the author’s opinion the traditional ascription should be ac-
cepted. The text inscribed on the two upper corners expresses
the artist’s devotion to Buddha, and in this inscription the
author sees Eshin’s autograph.
nh
i
aan
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
BUDDHIST ART
IN ITS RELATION TO
BUDDHIST IDEALS
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BUDDHISM IN
JAPAN
FOUR LECTURES GIVEN
AT THE MUSEUM
By M. ANESAKI, M.A., Lrrr.D.
Professor of the Science of Religion in the Imperial University of Tokyo
and Professor of Japanese Literature and Life
in Harvard University
1913-1915
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Publ:
DEDICATED TO
THE PIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL SOUL
OF
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Di questa costa, la dov’ ella frange
Piu sua rattezza, nacque al mondo un sole,
Come fa questo talvolta di Gange.
Pero chi d’esso loco fa parole
Non dica Ascesi, ché direbbe corto,
Ma Oriente, se proprio dir vuole.
DanTE, Paradiso.
PREFACE
THE present volume is the result of four Thursday Conferences given at
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in January and February of 1914. The
object of the lectures was, as the title expresses it, to elucidate the ideas
and ideals which inspired Buddhist artists, and to give some account of
the legends which they illustrated. In treating of these matters I have
dwelt very largely on Japanese Buddhism, not only because it is a subject
with which I am intimate, but also because I think Japanese Buddhism is
representative, more than Indian and Chinese, of a continuous develop-
ment both in doctrine and in art. If I had attempted a history of Buddhist
art in all the phases of its development, my plan must necessarily have
been quite different. In that case, the derivation of Chinese Buddhist art
from Indian sources in the centuries preceding the sixth, the development
of the T‘ang art into that of the Sung and then into the Japanese art of
the fourteenth century, and other similar matters, would have been dis-
cussed. But in spite of the rich material brought out in recent years from
China and central Asia, and in spite of the systematic studies made by
scholars on the relics of Chinese art existing in Japan, there are various
obscure points, such as the relation between the diverse streams of Indian
-art and the Chinese art of the sixth and seventh centuries, or the origin
of the Shingon (or Mantra) Buddhism and of its iconography, at which it
has been possible merely to hint in the following pages. Thus the main
purpose of the present volume is to provide an elucidation of Buddhist art
in its developed form, though endeavors have also been made to show its
intrinsic connection with the fundamental ideas of Buddhism. Let me
add that inasmuch as the paintings, statues, etc., reproduced throughout
the book are primarily intended to illustrate the Buddhist religion, it has
been necessary, in one or two instances, to introduce objects of secondary
importance as examples of Buddhist art.
And here I would say a few words in regard to my personal contact with
Vili PREFACE
Buddhist art. I was born in Kyoto, the centre of Japanese Buddhism and
Buddhist art, and was, in my early years, quite intimate with the relics
of art stored in the temples in and about the city. But my sense for art was
overshadowed by my study of philosophy, especially of English agnosti-
cism. Later, when I studied German idealism, during my student years in
Tokyo and in Germany, a revival of Buddhist idealism became a powerful
factor of my mental life, and enabled me to appreciate more deeply than
ever before the ideals of the Buddhist and the Christian religions. My
journeys in Italy, in 1902 and in 1908, especially the latter, had the effect
of awakening my remembrance of Buddhist art, and thus a high admi-
ration for Buddhist painting has become inseparably connected with a
similar feeling for that of the Italian Quattrocentists, just as my devotion
to Honen, the pietist saint of Japanese Buddhism, has been linked with
my reverent attachment to the Christian saint who preached to birds
and wrote the Canticle of the Sun. This I say in order rather to explain
my reasons for dedicating this volume to St. Francis of Assisi, than to
afford an opportunity for speaking of myself. May I hope that my
Catholic friends, especially those of the Order of Minor Friars, will not
take this as a sacrilege?
I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to express my gratitude to
Dr. Fairbanks, Director of the Museum, who first suggested the publica-
tion of these lectures in book form; to Mr. F. S. Kershaw, who was kind
enough to give me the benefit of his comment on the first two lectures;
and particularly to Dr.W. S. Bigelow, who has afforded me much indispen-
sable encouragement and advice. Special thanks, however, are due to Mr.
J. E. Lodge, Assistant Curator in Charge of the Department of Chinese
and Japanese Art, who has done everything for me in selecting material,
in revising the manuscripts, and in supervising the publication; — indeed
without his kind and painstaking help this book would have been im-
possible. |
M. ANESAKI.
Camprince, May, 1914.
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
Tue following brief indications may be found helpful in the pronunciation of unfa-
miliar Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, and Japanese words.
In Sanskrit and Pali, the vowels are pronounced as in Italian or Spanish; § and s are
soft, — something like sh in English; d and ¢ are pure lingual consonants, — not dental
as in English; n is also a pure lingual consonant, — not nasal; th and dh are pronounced
like the italicized letters in the phrases ‘hit hard’ and ‘hard hit’ respectively. .
In Chinese, according to Wade’s system of transliteration, a is usually long as in
‘father’; e short as in ‘ yet’; é, much like the vowel sound in the German ‘schon,’ except
before n, when it is like the vowel sound in ‘sun’; i long as in ‘machine,’ except before
n, when it is short as in ‘pin’; o not quite so broad as the ‘aw’ in ‘saw’; u like the
vowel sound in ‘too,’ except before n, when it resembles the vowel sound in ‘look’; i
like the French ‘u’ in ‘du’; u, something like the vowel sound in the first syllable of
‘surround’; ou, something like the vowel sound in ‘foe’; ai as in ‘aisle’; ei like the
vowel sound in ‘say’; in other vowel combinations each letter retains its original
force; ch is hard as in ‘church’; j is soft like the ‘s’ in ‘vision’; hs approximately like ‘sh’
in English. The inverted comma in Tang, Ch‘an and other words indicates a gentle
aspirate.
In Japanese the vowels are sounded as in Italian or Spanish. Each member of a
diphthong or other vowel combination retains its original force, and the important
distinction between a long and a short vowel results from duration of utterance rather
than from any change in sound. The consonants are pronounced approximately as in
English. G is hard as in ‘give,’ and double consonants should be pronounced really
double, as in ‘shol-tower’ or ‘cock-crow.’ There is practically no tonic accent, though
a similar effect is produced by the prolongation of the long vowels and by the enun-
ciation of double consonants.
CONTENTS
I. Tae Lire or BuppHA, THE FOUNDATION OF THE BUDDHIST
RELIGION, AND THE BEGINNING OF ITS ART
Il. Tae Buppuist IDEAL oF COMMUNION IN JAPANESE ART
Ill. BuppHIstT COSMOTHEISM AND THE SYMBOLISM OF ITS ART
IV. Buppuist NATURALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM: THE TRANSITION
FROM RELIGIOUS TO SECULAR ARTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX : : : ; : : , :
LIST OF PLATES
I. AmitA TRIAD RISING OVER Hitis. TRADITIONALLY AS-
Frontispiece
CRIBED TO EsHIn S0zu GENSHIN
Il. A Bupputst MemoriAL STELA
III. Tor or tae Norto GATEWAY TO THE GREAT STUPA AT
SANCHI, INDIA, SEEN FROM WITHIN
IV. (A & B) Ganpuara ScuLpruREs
V. DeTaiL From THE WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE GOLDEN HALL
oF Horyuw-st
VI. THe Hoxxt MAnpbAtLa
VII. Kwannon as THE Merctrut Axtt-Motuer. By Kano
HoGat
VIII. (A) Tot Gotpen Hat, GATEWAY AND Pacopa or Horyv-s1
(B) West Front or THE HoKKé-po or Topar-s1, NARA.
IX. (A & B) Two or tHe Four Guarpian Krncs
X. Brauma, Kine or THE HEAVENLY Hosts
XI. Amita BuppHA AND TWENTY-FIVE BoDHISATTVA.
EsH1n S0zu GENSHIN
XI. Toe Great Amita BuppHa at KamMakurRA
XU. Toe Amita Trap
XIV. Dat-nicut, THE GREAT ILLUMINATOR
XV. FupoO AND HIS ATTENDANTS - . x ; :
XVI. (A & B) Saust MAnpALa .
XVII. Dat-Itoku-myowo0, THE GREAT Masestic PowER
XVIII. Aizen-myowo, THE GREAT Passion
Io
Il
12
X1V
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVITI.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
KWANNON
LIST OF PLATES
(A, B, & C) Kwannon
Jizo, THE EarRTH-WOMB
Koxkuzo, THE Sky-WomB
Kokuzo, THE Sky-WomB
Monsu, THE CHARMING SPLENDOR
Monsu, THE CHARMING SPLENDOR
FuGEN, THE ALL-PERVADING WISDOM .
(A, B, & C) THe SHaxa TRIAD
A SyncretTic MANDALA
A LanpscaPr. By SESSHU
IpEAL Portrait oF BopHipHARMA. By MEN Wu-kuAN
(Mon-MUKWAN) .
SHAKA.
WHITE-ROBED KWANNON.
IN THE STYLE OF KANO UTANOSUKE
By Kano MoronosBu .
Kwannon. IN THE STYLE OF SESSHU .
Monsu. By Kano Tanyo
Monsu. By HOosetsu .
XXXVI. THe ArHANT (RAKAN) ANANDA FEEDING A Hunery
Guost. By Cuou Cui-cHane (SHU-KIJO) AND LIN
T‘ING-KUEI (RIN-TEIKEI)
XXXVII. Tae Anwant (RAKAN) DaRBHA MALLI-PUTRA ASCENDING
TO THE Sky. By Cuou Cui-cHANnG (SHU-KIJO) AND LIN
T‘ING-KUEI (RIN-TEIKEI)
XXXVIII. Tae Toree Laucuers or Hu-ust (Koxer). By Soca
SHOHAKU ‘ : i : ;
XXXIX. Han-SHan (KANZAN) AND SuHIH-T# (JITTOKU)
XL. Sara-T& (Ji7roxu). By GE&I-AMt.
LIST OF PLATES
XLI. A Cutnese Lanpscape. IN THE STYLE OF SoGA SHU-
BUN
XLII. A Cutnese Lanpscare. By Josetsu
XLIII. (A & B) Dracon anp Tiger. By HASEGAWA ToHAKU .
XLIV. A Travesty on Fucen. By Katsukawa SHUNSHO
XLV. A Travesty oN HaAn-SHAN (KANZAN) AND SutH-TE&
(JiTTOKU). By KAaTSUKAWA SHUNSHO
XLVI. A Cormorant. By Mryamoto Musasut
XLVII. SPARROW AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS. By KENZAN
BUDDHIST ART
IN ITS RELATION TO
BUDDHIST IDEALS
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BUDDHISM IN
JAPAN
BUDDHIST ART IN ITS RELATION TO
BUDDHIST IDEALS
I
THE LIFE OF BUDDHA, THE FOUNDATION OF THE BUDDHIST RELIGION, AND
THE BEGINNING OF ITS ART
It is almost needless to say that art and religion are two of the most
potent factors of human life. Art stimulates fancy by visualizing and
perpetuating beauty; it also tranquillizes the mind of man by inducing it
to contemplate what underlies the loveliness of forms and colors. Religion
gives man new life; it is an inspiration to the vigorous and a consolation
to the weak; it incites man to activity, even to the risk of death, but it
also pacifies him and transforms the wolf into a lamb. These two factors’ :
have almost always been associated throughout the history of mankind.
Religious faith has invariably found expression in art, which, in turn, has
derived the inspiration of its highest achievement from religion. Is this
association of art and religion a chance, a passing phenomenon, or is there
any necessary connection inherent in the nature of both? On this point
it is not my purpose to theorize; I shall try, rather, to illustrate the inner
relationship of Buddhist art and religion by tracing to their source the
ideals and beliefs of Buddhism.
Before taking up my subject, however, there is one matter to which I
would call attention. Curiously there prevails in the West an impression
that Buddhism is a religion of mere negation and pure abstraction. Here
I shall not argue. I simply wish to point out that he will never under-
stand Buddhist art who does not free his mind from such a preconception.
Buddhism exhorts its followers to overstep the bounds of self and enter
the ideal community of spiritual life. This teaching is, to be sure, a nega-
tion of the bondage of individual limitations; but it is equally an affirmation
of a life broader than the individual. It may be called withdrawal from
2 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
the material world, but it is also an entrance into the larger world of
ideals. It was this breadth of mental vista and depth of sympathy that
made Buddhism a universal religion and gave inspiration to artistic genius.
The ideal of the Buddhist faith consists in realizing, through spiritual ex-
perience and in moral acts, the continuity of life in man and nature and
the fellowship of all beings. This ideal was the soil which nourished the
stem of the Buddhist religion and the flowers of Buddhist art. The seed
sown was the person of Buddha, the Sage of the Sakya clan, who was
born about twenty-five hundred years ago in India. He proclaimed this
ideal to mankind, and it was the pious remembrance of his person, on the
part of his followers, that gave to Buddhist art its first impetus. Who,
then, was he? What did he teach?
It was among the luxurious growth of a tropical flora, in the royal gar-
dens at Kapilavastu, at the foot of the Himalayas, that a young prince
pondered over the questions pressing upon his mind: What is life? Whence
have we come? Whither are we going? The foliage and flowers swaying in
the glorious sunshine, the snow-clad peaks floating far off in-the pale
moonlight, the fireflies glowing in the darkness of night and flying in
swarms among the trees, — each of these seemed to him to be telling of
the evanescence of worldly things. The gay sing-song of the dancing-
girls, the melodies of lutes and cymbals, the gorgeous feasts and proces-
_sions, the ostentatious celebration of festivals, all these things, offered for
his pleasure, were but torture inflicted upon his meditative mind. At last
the worldly life of a prince became unbearable to him. He fled out of his
father’s palace and became a recluse. Wandering among forests he thought
over the same problems again and again, seeking a final solution. “ Life is
subject to age and death. Where is the realm of life in which there is
neither age nor death? What is our life, — made up of body and mind, of
perceptions and emotions? Is there no haven where we can be free from
sorrows and agonies?’’ Years passed in these meditations and in the prac-
tice of self-mortification.
At last, while he was sitting under the pendent branches and rustling
LIFE OF BUDDHA | 3
leaves of a pippala tree near Gaya, and when the morning star glittered in
the transparent sky of the east, the light of illumination dawned upon his
mind. The final solution was, after all, quite a simple one: that selfishness
is the root of all sorrows and vices. Peace came to his mind with the
conviction that man is tormented by greed for gain or by sorrow for loss
simply because he is held captive within the narrow limits of self-inter-
est, and that beyond this captivity stretches out a vast expanse of univer-
sal life. The individual is destined to die, together with the passing phases
of his existence. But life itself never dies, since it persists in the lives of
those who have grasped the truth and found the real life in that which is
common to all. This is the truth of universal and everlasting life, the basic
unity and the ultimate goal of all separate existences. In this new life the
solitary seeker realized his spiritual fellowship with the Enlightened
(Buddha) or Truth-winners (Tathagata) of the past, sages of old who had
trodden the same way and reached the final destination. His whole being
underwent a complete transformation through the force of his simple but
permanent acceptance of life transfigured into the universal communion of
truth. The lonely recluse had become a Buddha or Tathagata. Then he
bathed in the cool water of the river flowing past his seat and cleansed his
body just as he had cleansed his mind. For a while he remained under the
pippala tree' and enjoyed, in the serene atmosphere of the shadowy spot,
the light of his spiritual illumination.
Once a royal prince, then an ascetic, and at last a Truth-winner, he was
no more a Slave of life and of its pleasure and pain, but a master of the
truth of universal life. Yet there remained for him a further question:
Should he enjoy this enlightenment within himself alone, as former sages
had done, or should he proclaim it to others, that they might be induced
to seek the same attainment? While he was thinking of this, it is said,
Brahma, the lord of the heavenly hosts, came down to his side and ad-
monished him to enlighten others in the same truth. Buddha looked with
his spiritual eyes the world over, and compassion for his fellow beings took
1 Thereafter called the Bodhi tree, because under it Buddha attained Bodhi (Enlightenment). The
corrupt form, Bo tree is also common.
A I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
possession of his mind. He saw them, as it is told, like lotus stems and
buds in a lake, some immersed in the mud, others coming out of it or just
appearing above the water, and still others beginning to blossom. Seeing
this he determined to bring them all to full bloom and to the bearing of
fruit. In other words, he became convinced of the possibility and neces-
sity of extending the communion of the Truth-winners to all sentient be-
ings, who should in turn become the future Truth-winners. The spiritual
tie which connected his life with the sages of old must be destined to em-
brace those still outside the pale; because the truth, by realization of
which he had become the Buddha, should be common to the lives and
minds of all. Every one overcoming the restrictions of his selfish envelope
could realize his spiritual fellowship with all others and could practice that
ideal relation in the transfigured life of love and compassion. Moreover, it
was clearly seen by Buddha that his own perception of the truth would be
in vain, unless it should really lead his fellow beings to the same com-
munion of universal life.
Faithful to his conviction and firm in his determination, Buddha started
on a missionary journey, “to turn the indestructible wheel of truth,”’ “to
pour the blessing-rain of truth,” for the sake of others. With this purpose
he turned his steps to Kasi (Benares), the holy metropolis of all India,
and preached there to five ascetics, who were soon converted to his faith.
This was the first step toward realizing the extension of the ideal commu-
nity of life, the nucleus of the Buddhist communion (Sangha) among man-
kind. It is said that all the heavenly hosts came together at the scene of
the sermon and sang in adoration of the Truth (Dharma). An Enlight-
ened One, a sage, thus became the Master of Truth and the leader of
men and celestial beings. The Tathagata was no more the “One who has
gone beyond,” but the “One who has come down”’ to lead others; not only
the Truth-winner, but also the Truth-revealer; and Buddha’s person as
such a Truth-revealer, together with the Dharma he revealed and the
1 For the description of these steps in Buddha’s determination, a K. E. Neumann, Die Reden Gotee
Buddho’s, vol. 1, pp. 259-79. Attention is also called to the importance of the simile of the lotus, especially
in reference to the ‘‘ Lotus of Truth”’ of which I shall presently speak (page 15 ff). Brahma, the Heavenly
Lord, as he appears in a Japanese work of sculpture, will be referred to in the second chapter.
FOUNDATION OF THE BUDDHIST RELIGION 5
Sangha he founded, make up the Three Treasures, or Holy Trinity, of the
Buddhist religion.
Soon the Buddhist communion was extended, in the early stages of
Buddha’s ministry, to tens and hundreds. These the Master sent to
preach everywhere “the Truth which is glorious at its start, glorious at its
climax, glorious in its consummation,” for the “weal and the welfare of
many people, and out of compassion for the world.’’! Buddha himself
passed the rest of his life, nearly fifty years, in missionary journeys, in
preaching his gospel, consoling the afflicted, rescuing pest-stricken regions,
and mediating between combatant parties. He was revered as the Mas-
ter, the Lord of Truth, the King of Law.? His community embraced all
those who followed him, without regard to distinctions of caste or capa-
bility. His disciples went everywhere in India, even outside its boundaries
and beyond the Indus to countries inhabited by fierce barbarians. Mis-
sions to foreign lands were carried out still more extensively and vigor-
ously in the third century B.c. by the pious King Asoka, penetrating even
to Greece and Egypt in the West and to the inland borders of China in the
Kast. These missionary activities had important bearing not only upon
the propagation of Buddhist teachings, but also upon the development of
its art, as we shall presently see.
Thus it was the personal inspiration of Buddha that laid the foundation
of his religion, the religion taught by him as well as the religion of faith in
him. This religion was the result of his enlightenment, through which he
achieved the transformation of his life by entering the community of the
Truth-winners and embracing all fellow beings in the same communion.
The actual community of the Buddhists, or Buddhist Church, was a mani-
festation and realization of the ideal communion grasped in Buddha’s
spiritual illumination. And here the question arises: What was the source
of the artistic inspiration which Buddhism developed so opulently? In
other words: Was Buddha himself an artist, or had Buddhism any inherent
1 A. J. Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian Gospels, vol. 1, pp. 225-26.
? This is a very important point in Buddhist faith, which many Western scholars fail to grasp. Later
on we shall see a development of this idea in the identification of Buddha’s person with cosmic life.
Compare Edmunds, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 83.
6 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
tendency to express itself in art? Our answer is affirmative, with a certain
66
special extension in the meaning of the words “art” and “artist.”
Buddhism offered three sources of artistic inspiration. The first is the
conception of life implied in Buddha’s personality and proclaimed by his
teachings. The second is a consequence of the first and consists in the
pious memory of the Master cherished among his followers. The third,
another corollary of the first, is the practice of dedication based on the
ideal of universal communion.
Buddha was an artist, not, I dare say, in the sense that he ever worked
with brush or chisel, but in the sense that his perception of life was
artistic. Who would deny that Christ was artistically inspired, when he
saw the glory of God in the lilies of the field? Who would doubt the
indebtedness of Giotto and Dante to St. Francis of Assisi, or would hesi-
tate to see in the pious and beautiful soul of Francis a living fountain
of artistic inspiration? Just in the same way Buddha, too, was an artist;
because he perceived in man and in nature the vital and sympathetic
tie which bound them to his own soul. Every thing and every fellow
being is embraced in his spiritual life, and thus enters into an ulti-
mate connection with his ideal. Nothing is left outside the bounds of
his sympathy; all is vivified by the touch of personal relation. This is
the process of idealization, the secret of artistic creation; and Buddha
grasped this secret in his conception of universal communion and through
his training in the transformed life. A metaphoric description of this
artistic sympathy is best given by the simile of plants in the “Lotus of
TFruth;”
Similarly based on a broad sympathy is the fourfold “infinite emanci-
pation or expansion of mind.” This expansion of mind implies a practice
of meditation in love, compassion, joy and equanimity, by means of which
the practitioner’s consciousness is extended and embraces ideally all fellow
beings in an infinitely expanded vision. Indeed, Buddha was a man of vi-
1 For descriptions of the method and its results, see Rhys Davids, The Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 1,
pp. 317-18.
BEGINNING OF BUDDHIST ART 7
sion in the best sense, and it is perhaps beyond our power to estimate how
vividly he realized the continuity of life through his spiritual eyes. But,
on the other hand, Buddhism is by no means a religion of mere ecstasy.
Its meditative training, together with the practice of charity in various
ways,’ results in a total transformation of life through the realization, first
in idea and then in acts, of one’s spiritual connection and sympathetic
accord with mankind and surrounding nature.
According to Buddhist view, the sphere of fellowship comprises not only
all living creatures, but also supernal beings high in heaven, and the spirits
inhabiting nature. Moreover, the strong impressions received by Buddha
and his followers from animals and plants and the imposing landscapes
of India, worked so deeply upon their minds that their feeling toward
nature played an essential part in their idea of fellowship. Perhaps in no
other religion are animals and flowers treated with such intimacy as in
Buddhism, not only in the way of similes, but also in concrete manifes-
tations of tender sympathy.? It is no wonder that Buddha’s sermons
and the mental training of his disciples were closely connected with the
love of nature, when we consider that most of their time was spent in
the open, under the pendent branches of banyan trees, amidst the fragrance
of sala flowers, by the side of flowing streams or bubbling springs, or on
hills and among rocks. This is the reason why the expansion of conscious-
ness toward the infinite mind is, to take one of many instances, likened
to the all-permeating pale moonlight and to a trumpet sound reverber-
ating through the profound serenity of a tropical night.* In addition, we
must remember that these and other metaphors were not mere figurative ex-
pressions, but represented experiences derived from the natural grandeur
or repose surrounding the scene of tranquil meditation. In a word, the
1 The more usual are: giving, gentle words, benevolence and common benefit, the necessary conse-
quences of the Buddhist conception of life.
? The representation of animals and trees in Buddhist sculpture will be presently spoken of. For animal
stories, see Rhys Davids, The Buddhist Birth Stories; Jataka, translated by various scholars and edited by
Cowell, in six volumes. The existing version of AXsop’s Fables owes much to these Buddhist stories; see
the introduction to the above book by Rhys Davids.
3 Many of the similes of nature in Buddha’s sermons may be found in K. E. Neumann, Die Reden
Gotamo Buddho’s. Poems by early Buddhists are translated in Mrs. Rhys Davids’ The Psalms of the Early
Buddhists; and in K. E. Neumann’s Die Lieder der Ménchen und Nonnen Gotamo Buddho’s.
8 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
love of nature played a vital part in the Buddhist conception of life and
its continuity. |
Thus the ideal communion of the Buddhist faith comprised all kinds of
existences, actual and imaginary, in men and in nature. The expansion of
Buddha’s spiritual being, wrought by this new conception of life, became
the fountain-head of an inexhaustible inspiration in religion and morals,
in art and poetry. All that he had once regarded as causes of sorrow and
signs of evanescence was transfigured into delightful and inspiring testi-
mony to his ideal fellowship with men and nature. This new aspect of life,
now realized by the Master and inspired in his followers, was expressed as
the gospel of the Hkayana, or all-embracing Sole Road, whose rule should
be the universal fellowship of life. This Sole Road is the Pathway to Im-
mortality ‘and its final goal is Nirvana, the eternal haven of life, the realm
of spiritual communion.” To recapitulate, this ideal of the ultimate unity
of all existences is the source, in Buddha’s life and teaching, from which
Buddhist art derived its profoundest and most enduring inspirations.
Now we come to the second point in the inspiration of Buddhist art.
The communion of life was, for the Buddhists, not a mere ideal vision but
an actual fact realized in Buddha’s life, in his conversion and in his inspi-
ration. The Truth-winner and Truth-revealer, the Master, was believed
by his disciples to be a personal testimony, an incarnation, of what he
preached. Faith, not only in the truth but also in the person of Buddha,
was what distinguished Buddhism preéminently from any of the older
religions of India, and it was this personal influence that gave vitality to
the Buddhist religion and its art. It is quite natural that the impressions
given by Buddha’s personality should have been faithfully and piously
kept on record, together with the vivid effect of fellowship produced by
the assembly of his followers united in heart and in the common ideal.
How deeply his disciples were moved by the dignity of the Master, when
he sat among his hearers “like a lion among animals,”’ and preached with
authority ‘‘like the lion’s roar’?! How respectfully the people met the Sage
of the Sakya clan, going through the streets, “like the elephant king,”
1 Pali, amatam padam.
2 I take these expressions from the Samyutta-Nikaya, chapter 43, one of the oldest Buddhist texts.
BEGINNING OF BUDDHIST ART 9
calm and dignified at the head of hundreds of followers! A monk poet
sang: —
To-day, at full moon, for full purity
Five hundred brethren are together come.
They all have cut their fetters and their bonds;
Seers who are free from re-birth and from ill.
And as a king who ruleth all the world,
Surrounded by his councillors of state,
Toureth around his empire everywhere,
Driving throughout the lands that end in sea,
So him, who is our victor in the fight,
The peerless Master of our caravan,
We followers attend and wait upon,
Who hold the triple lore, slayers of Death.
All we are sons of the Exalted One.
No sterile babbler is among us found.
I worship him who strikes down craving’s darts.
I greet the offspring of the Sun’s great line.?
Closely connected with the ideal of communion and stimulated by the
personal remembrance of the Master, the idea and practice of dedication °
played a great part in the religion and art of Buddhism. The whole cosmos,
according to the Buddhist view, is a stage on which may be realized that
fellowship among all living beings whereof the Buddhist community,
united in faith and practices, is an actual manifestation. Spiritual fellow-
ship, however, is existent and attainable not only in the visible community
but also throughout the unlimited extent of universal life. That is to say,
each thought of man is pulsating with the heart-beat of the cosmic life,
and when an individual acts and speaks he is playing an integral part in
the motion and expression of the universe. Therefore his deeds and inten-
tions can never be totally isolated from the lives of others, though the
connection may sometimes be hidden and often unknown to the individual
1 The appearance of the lion and the elephant in Buddhist sculpture will be taken up later in this
chapter and in chapter 11.
2 Mrs. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Early Buddhists, The Brethren, pp. 4o2-03.
* Sanskrit, parinamana; Japanese, eko.
10 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
himself. The duty and joy of every Buddhist, that is, of every one who
dwells in the all-embracing Communion of Life with conviction thereof,
must lie in doing every deed, speaking every word and thinking every
thought, with the pious intention of dedicating his best to the profit of all.
The whole universe is the “Field of Merits’’! in which the seeds of pious
desire are sown and the harvest of merit is reaped. Dedication, in desire
and in acts, is the means of realizing the communion and extending it to
those who are still unaware of it. Consecrate a flower to the tomb of one
dead; it is not only an expression of the spiritual communion existing
between the dead and the living, but it may also induce into the same
communion any one who might be impressed by the beauty of the flower
or by the motive for its dedication. Any other meritorious action — such
as giving food, nursing the sick, building a temple — may be dedicated to
the Communion of Life and, perhaps, result in converting others. Thus the
practice of dedication in thought and deed has ever been a great inspiring
factor in the piety of Buddhists (Plate IT).
The new religion inaugurated by Buddha asserted its influence upon the
moral life of his disciples and also expressed its faith and ideals in the forms
of architecture and sculpture. The first manifestation of artistic activity
among the Buddhists was seen in the memorials built in honor of the
relics of the deceased Master. After Buddha’s death his relics were
divided among the various kingdoms which had embraced his faith, and
each portion was deposited in a crystal pot filled with golden flowers and
enclosed in an iron casket. Mounds (stiipa) or chapels (cattya) were
erected as repositories for these precious relics, and a little later palings
and gateways were built around these memorials. In symbolic design, the
palings were intended to represent the circle of the communion, and the
gateways stood for the entrance to the Sole Way of salvation. Ceremonies
were performed about the mounds or in the chapels, and processions
marched around the reliquaries. These structures were embellished with
relief carvings which show the earliest work of Buddhist sculptors. The
1 Pali, pufifia-kkhetta; Sanskrit, punya-ksetra; Japanese, fuku-den.
-
A Buppmisr Memortat §
‘
PLATE II
A Buppuist MEmorIAL STELA
CHINESE, DATED 554 A.D.
Owned by Hervey E. Wetzel, Esq., and now deposited in
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tue scenes depicted are based chiefly on
the Lotus of Truth (see p. 75 ff.) and rep-
resent various aspects of the Buddhist
Communion of Saints. The uppermost
part, which is, unfortunately, much broken,
seems to have illustrated the story told in
chapter xxm of the Lotus, to the effect
that the Bodhisattva Bhaigajya-raja (Chin-
ese, Yao-wang), after he had been born
as a son to King Vimaladatta, delivered
a sermon to his father and then ascended
to heaven, being mounted on a pedestal
decorated with the seven kinds of jewels.
We see here in the remains of an inscrip-
tion, a Chinese ideograph denoting “king,”
above which the name of Vimaladatta
probably appeared. The figure immediately
to the right would thus be that of the king,
and the knees on a bench-like pedestal still
further to the right would belong to the
Bodhisattva.
The next register below evidently repre-
sents the meeting of the two Buddhas,
Sakya-muni (Chinese, Shih-chia) and Prab-
hiita-ratna (Chinese, To-pao), in the
heavenly shrine, as told in chapter x1 of the
Lotus. The two figures of Bodhisattva stand-
ing beside the Buddhas are Bhaisajya-raja
and AvalokiteSvara (Chinese, Kuan Yin),
who are most prominently mentioned in
the Lotus as protectors of the Budd-
hist religion and its believers in the
latter days of the world. To the left of
Bhaisajya-raja is a figure sitting under a
tree; and to the right of AvalokiteSvara,
an ascetic sitting in a cave. Of these
two the former was ‘probably meant to
represent Buddha in his princely life,
meditating in his garden; while in the
latter he appears as a recluse, before his
attainment of Buddhahood.
The scene in the third register shows
Buddha with his two great disciples, Anan-
da (Chinese, A-nan) and Maha-Kasyapa
(Chinese, Chia-yeh), on his left and right
respectively. On either side of the cen-
tral group, and separated from it by a
decorative partition, is a group consisting
of a Padma-pani and a Vajra-pani, also
protectors of the religion. Below this regis-
ter there stands a reliquary to which four
noblemen, the chief donors of the monu-
ment, each accompanied by a horse and
pages, come to pay homage.
The whole thing was made, as the inscrip-
tion at the bottom expresses it, under the
West Wei dynasty, to dedicate the merit
(of causing the carving to be done) to the
welfare of the country and the people, espe-
cially the ancestors, parents, and friends of
the donors, who are enumerated to the
extent of about-two hundred men and
women. A remarkable point in the tech-
nique is that the Buddhas and Buddhist
figures are carved in pronounced relief,
quite in the style of the carvings at Bharhat
or Sanchi, while the figures of the Chinese
noblemen are executed almost after the old
Chinese method of chiselled drawing. The
other three sides of the stone display the
various but typified figures of the donors,
also cut in the lowest possible relief. The
workmanship of the Buddhist figures is
interesting as an example of the Indian in-
fluence which so affected the rise of Bud-
dhist art in China, Korea, and Japan in the
sixth and seventh centuries. The drapery
of the two Buddhas in the second register is
especially striking as a combination of In-
dian and Chinese influences, and it is this
resultant style that found its further devel-
opment in the statues of Horyw-ji.
Compare also, E. Chavannes, in T‘oung.
Pao, vol. x1v, no. 2, pp. 272-80; and in Ars
Asiatica, vol. 11, pp. 20-29.
EEN
CHI, INDIA, s
‘
FROM WITHIN
—
=
ag
<
~
i
Top or THE NortH GATEWAY TO THE GREAT STUPA AT SAN
PLATE III
Top or THE NortH GATEWAY TO THE GREAT STUPA
AT SANCHI, [NDIA, SEEN FROM WITHIN
’ oe
Reproduced from Burgess’s “The Ancient Monuments, Temples,
and Sculptures of India” :
CARVED in relief, in the middle of the uppermost cross-
piece, is the Bodhi tree, to which elephants are paying hom-
age; and, at the intersection with the uprights, are winged,
antelope-like animals unknown to Buddhist legend.
On the middle cross-piece, the hosts of the Evil Ones (San-
skrit, Mara) are threatening the prince, who is shown seated
a little to the left of the centre, and still further to the left are
a man, his wife and child, and the Bodhi tree. The birds on
the terminals are peacocks (Sanskrit, maurya; Pali, moriya)
representing the dynasty of King Asoka.
On the lower cross-piece’ is a scene, beginning at the left
terminal, which shows a palace surrounded by terraces and
towers, a horseman, — probably intended for the Buddha in
his princely estate, — a procession, a forest, a village, a her-
mitage in front of which a sacrificial fire burns, and -finally,
on the right terminal, a number of people and animals in
another part of the forest.
BEGINNING OF BUDDHIST ART) II
oldest of such sculptures are, perhaps, the palings of Bharhat + (fourth cen-
tury B.c.)), and the progress of the glyptic art in the third century B.c.,
during the reign of King Asoka, can be traced in the carved palings of
Buddha-Gaya and Sanchi.? Another treatment of sculpture is shown in
the lions and elephants on top of the commemorative pillars which were
erected by the king at places associated with important events jn Buddha’s
life.
Now these carvings represent, for the most part, assemblies of believers
before the Master. Such assemblies were, as I have said, a concrete mani-
festation of the Buddhist ideal of spiritual communion, and the fact that
the early Buddhist sculptors worked on this subject shows the inspiring
effect of the ideal upon their artistic genius. In the centre of the assembly
there is always a symbolic representation of Buddha’s person, such as the
holy wheel (cakra) symbolizing the eternal truth revealed by him, or a
vacant seat on which he used to sit, or the Bodhi tree under which he
attained Buddhahood. Indeed the person of Buddha was too sacred and
sublime to be represented, by the early Buddhist artists, as a human figure.?
On the other hand, the believers who are paying homage to the central
figure are shown as living beings: men and women bringing garlands, angels
hovering in the sky and perhaps singing in Buddha’s praise, and animals
sharing the communion and offering flowers. It is to be noted that ele-
phants play the most prominent part among these animals, and also that
lions are seated on the beams of the gateways. Flowers, too, are lavishly
represented, generally in decorative medallions on the palings; and in this
connection one may well recall Buddha’s vision of lotus flowers symbol-
izing various conditions of mankind. So far I have spoken with reference
chiefly to the carvings at Sanchi (Plate III). Other scenes, however, sug-
gested by the stories of Buddha’s past existences in animal form, or by vari-
ous incidents of his human life, are executed on the palings and columns of
Bharhat, — all without human figures of Buddha. But though the sculp-
ture of Bharhat has no characteristic other than charming naiveté, that of
Sanchi shows a great advance in delicate finish and compound grouping.
1 Now deposited in the India Museum, Calcutta. 2 Near Bhopal.
8 He is, however, freely represented as a young prince, i. e., before he attained to Buddhahood.
12 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
While glyptic representation of the Buddhist faith was gaining ground
among Indian Buddhists, the artistic genius of the Greeks came into play,
and not only contributed to the refinement of the art but also effected a
significant change. The Greeks left behind by Alexander’s expedition had
established a kingdom in the northwest of India. In due course many of
them were converted to Buddhism and worked out the newly embraced
beliefs in sculpture. They took, it is true, the same subjects as their Indian
brothers, representing the life of Buddha, or assemblies of the communion
before the Master; but the Greek ideal of personal beauty could not long
fail of application to the person of the revered Perfect Being. Buddha, the
“hero of the Solar Race,” the “Light of the World which dispelled the
darkness of illusion,’ was represented by the Greco-Indian artists in all
the beauty of an Apollo. The symbolic wheel was transferred to the deco-
ration of his chair, and in the vacant seat was an Apollo Musagetes, with
bright eyes and waving hair. The human beings paying homage to the
central figure were clothed in Indian robes, but the celestial lords, Brahma
and Indra, were represented like Zeus and Achilles (Plate IV, A & B).
Needless to say, such influences contributed greatly to the enrichment of
Buddhist sculpture; and the most significant innovation — the one destined
to become a permanent factor in Buddhist art — was undoubtedly the
actual representation of the person of Buddha himself. Whether the
anthropomorphic figures of Buddha are the product solely of Greek genius,
is still a difficult and far-reaching historical question whose discussion
would lead me beyond the scope of my present subject. Suffice it to point
out that the Buddhist statues of southern India can hardly be designated
as the outcome of Greek influence; and that, moreover, even in the sculp-
ture of Northern Buddhism, in Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan,
there seem to have been two schools of sculptural art, one of which is
decidedly Greek, while the other is not.
There are also various interesting points which might be mentioned in
connection with the origins of Buddhist painting and temple building; but
we must leave these out of consideration here, because, in the present state
of knowledge, they pertain rather to archeology than to art history. After
PLATE IV (A & B)
GANDHARA SCULPTURES
SECOND CENTURY, A. D.
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A. Nirvana: the dying Buddha surrounded by his follow-
ers. On the left. close to the figure of Buddha, stands Indra,
holding his symbolic thunderbolt in his left hand. On the
right is a monastic disciple, probably Ananda, and in the
background is a group of-lay men and women.
B. THe Temprations: Buddha, with Seduction on his
right and Violence on his left.
MAHAYANA, THE BROADER COMMUNION 13
all we can be pretty sure that early Buddhist painting treated similar sub-
jects in a style analogous to that of the relief carvings, and that in the
course of time the temples were built more and more as places of assembly
and worship. We cannot doubt the inspiring effect of Buddhist ideals upon
these branches of art, which found their way wherever the religion was
propagated. The beginning of the Buddhist religion in a small community
of Buddha’s disciples, the rise of Buddhist sculpture after his death, the
rapid development of Buddhist art partly through the contribution of the
Greeks, the spread of the religion together with its art to China and Japan,
— these steps will remain forever a marvel of human achievement inspired
by the zeal of faith. Herein we can discern the subtle but close connection
between religious faith and artistic inspiration; and the connection becomes
more manifest and vital in the developed form of Buddhism known as the
Mahayana, the Greater Vehicle or Broader Communion,! which we are
now about to consider.
From the very beginning, it was the belief of Buddhists that their com-
munion included all things visible and invisible. They imagined the pres-
ence of heavenly hosts in the congregation of believers; the Maha-samaya,
or Great Assembly, as it is called, was believed to embrace all celestial
beings; and to them are ascribed various songs, of which the following
may serve as an example: —
Great is the gathering in the glade!
The hosts of heaven together met!
We too are come unto this congress blest,
And fain would see the Company Invincible.
The brethren there, wrought up
To concentration rapt, make straight their hearts,
Wisely, as driver keeping grip on rein,
Their faculties they guard.
1 Tt is called the Greater in contrast to the Lesser Vehicle (Hinayana), not to the original Buddhism,
as is often wrongly supposed. The books of the Broader Communion seem to have taken their present
forms during centuries in the pre-Christian era, and are preserved in abundance in Nepal, China, Tibet,
and Japan. Compare D. Suzuki, Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism.
th I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
Who in the Buddha refuge take,
They shall not go to woeful doom.
When they put off this human frame
They shall fill up the hosts in heaven.!
This idea of extension is elaborated in painting as well as in poetry, and
zealous fancy plays a great role in broadening the communion of the saints.
Buddha occupies, as a matter of course, the central position in the extended
community, surrounded by men and gods in the midst of terrestrial beauty
and heavenly glories.” Beside the celestial deities who descended from the
height of the Brahmanic pantheon, there appear the supernal, semi-
human beings called Bodhisattva, or Beings of Enlightenment, and also
various spiritual manifestations of Buddha himself. The Bodhisattva are
considered in the mythology to be those who are striving for a full realiza-
tion of the universal communion of Buddhist ideals by taking vows to
practice great virtues and to persuade others to the same morality. They
are represented in art as beautiful human figures, with bright eyes, rosy
cheeks, and long, waving hair. On their heads are golden crowns; their
breasts and arms are decorated with garlands; and fine veils float down-
ward from their shoulders. They surround Buddha and add to the glories
of the assemblage. |
The Greater Vehicle has its metaphysics and moral theories, but these I
must leave out of consideration. As a development of beliefs on the lines
of poetic imagination, — a further pursuance of the broadening commun-
ion and of the aspiration for its realization in various directions, — the
Mahayana was a tremendous force to inspire the artistic sense of the
Buddhists and, in return, was largely influenced by that sense. Books
setting forth the ideas and faith of this branch of Buddhism are written in
flowery style, with high flights of imagination, allegories, similes, parables,
visions, and apocalyptic scenes. They are, to leave untouched the meta-
physical doctrines preached in them, descriptions in words of the pic-
1 Rhys Davids, The Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 11, pp. 284-85.
2 This glorification of Buddha in a mythical way is closely connected with the metaphysical conception
of his person as identified with the ultimate entity of Truth (Dharmata). This conception may best be
compared to the identification of Christ with the Logos in the Johannine Gospel.
Meee Z . ae © 3s
THE WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE GoLDEN Hatt or Horyt-s
PLATE V
DETAIL FROM THE WALL-PAINTINGS IN THE GOLDEN HALL
oF Horyt-s1
JAPANESE, WaADO PERIOD, circa A.D. 710
Tuts particular group occupies a position immediately to
the left of the figure of Buddha, whose knee and elbow may
be seen at the extreme right of the picture. The close simi-
larity of this art to that of the T‘ ang period in China is very
striking. Compare Plate VI.
Painted in colors.
MAHAYANA, THE BROADER COMMUNION 15
tures representing the glorious assembly of celestial and human beings
around Buddha, and they served to stimulate afresh the expression in
color and form of the scenes they described. For this reason, pictures
representing the vast community of the Buddhist faith in a resplendent
combination of figures are called mandala, or cycles delineating what is
described in the books.
To illustrate painting of this kind, I take first the mural decorations in
the Golden Hall of Horyi-ji (Plate V), dating from the early eighth cen-
tury. The principal pictures represent the various paradises, the so-called
Buddha-lands, in which the respective Buddhas reside as the lords who re-
ceive the believers into their realms. The whole scene is full of resplendent
colors; the clouds, flowers, celestial beings and human beings illuminated by
the rays emitted from Buddha’s body. Thecentral figure, the Lord Buddha,
is seated in a dignified posture immersed in deep contemplation, or blessing
men and inducing them into his communion. The saints standing in front;
including deities, Bodhisattva and monastic disciples, join their hands in
adoration of the Lord. Their faces are full of the expression of piety, and
their postures show that they are united in heart with the Lord and with
their fellows. The glorious colors are now somewhat faded, but the origi-
nal conception and composition are splendidly preserved, and the tender
expression of lines and curves testifies to the high achievement of the artist.
These representations of the Buddha-lands on the walls of Horyt-ji
illustrate the scenes as they are described in various books; and in order to
understand the intention and scheme of similar pictures it is desirable to
know the written descriptions, just as it is convenient to refer to the pic-
tures in order to appreciate fully the style of the books. For this purpose
I take here the most important of the Mahayana scriptures, the “ Lotus of
the Perfect Truth,” or Sad-dharma-pundarika.? The lotus is a symbol of
purity and perfection because it grows out of mud but is not defiled, —
just as Buddha is born into the world but lives above the world; and
because its fruits are said to be ripe when the flower blooms, — just as
1 A monastery near Nara, Japan, built A:p. 598-607.
? Japanese, Hokké-kyo. E. Burnouf’s French translation is entitled Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi. See also
the Sacred Books of the East, vol. 21.
16 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
the truth preached by Buddha bears immediately the fruit of enlighten-
ment. Buddha, according to the Lotus, is Lord of the world, the Father of
all beings, the Master of all the enlightened, and his personality is identical
with the eternal Truth which manifests itself as the phenomena of the
visible universe. He is as well the ultimate source of our existence and of
all our thoughts and ideas. This eternal Lord has appeared among men as
a human being for the sole purpose of realizing the spiritual lotus of truth
in the lives of all sentient beings, and to this end he teaches them and
brings them to maturity in accordance with their respective needs and
capabilities. Just as one and the same water of rain nourishes innumerable
plants and grasses enabling each of them to develop its characteristic fea-
tures, so the same truth revealed by Buddha makes the lotus flower of
every man’s spirit bloom and bear the fruits of moral life in the communion
of enlightened souls.
In order further to insure the progress of his saving and enlightening
work, Buddha manifests a vision of a heavenly shrine in which the eternal
Truth is deposited, and summons all his disciples to adore the stipa and to
take the vow of allegiance to the Truth. The scene of this apocalyptic
vision is peopled also by hosts of innumerable saints who come out of
fissures in the earth and sing in unison their adoration of Buddha and of
his teachings. They take a solemn oath to observe the Master’s precepts
and to perpetuate his religion by modelling their lives on those of the saints
who care for the spiritual welfare of all. The narrations reach their climax
when Buddha reveals the real entity of his eternal life and promises to
appear before those who will lead lives of sanctity, and to realize, in the
communion of saints, the Kingdom of Buddha on earth. In short this book
represents the highest flight of Buddhist idealism and the most eager
aspiration for the realization of the all-embracing Sole Road.
It is no wonder that the Lotus of Truth, a grand religious poem in itself,
gave great impetus to Buddhist art and poetry. The apparition of the
heavenly shrine, the hosts of the sanctified adoring Buddha, the stories of
miracles wrought by saints in the name of salvation, — these and other
topics were painted ceaselessly in a variety of scenes and compositions.
PLATE VI
THe Hoxxkt Manpata
Artist unknown
CHINESE, MirppLeE NintH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
AN inscription on the back of the painting says: “The
chief mandala of the Hokké-do. This mandala is a repre-
sentation of the sacred mountain, and is a real product of
India. And whereas the parts below the seat of Sakya had all
been destroyed, owing, perhaps, to natural decay, or to muti-
lation by people (for relics), and the picture having passed
through unknown ages in that state, now therefore, in March,
the 4th year of Kytian (1148), we have allowed Chinkei, [k6-
Daihdshi (clerical title), a monk of this temple to repair it.
This is because of his skill in painting which he has inherited
from his ancestors. We inscribe these particulars in order
that posterity may not be misled. Kanshin, Betto-Honmu
(Director of Temple Affairs), Gon-Dai-sojo (Junior Arch-
bishop).”” Kanshin (1084-1153) held office at Tédai-ji, the
temple to which the Hokké-do belonged.
The picture, an important example of T‘ang painting,
shows to a marked degree the Indian influence which was
predominant in China during the seventh, eighth and ninth
centuries, and in this respect may be compared with the
paintings more recently found at Tun-huang. It is also a
most interesting illustration of the landscape style developed
by artists of the T‘ang dynasty.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a panel.
a.
=)
Blank Page Digitally Inserted
Rat Sa? vy ‘
< ee f
S oe i .
on “Kwann N AS tHE Mercirun Att-Morner. | By Kano Hocar
PLATE VII
KWANNON AS THE MerciruL AtL-MoTHER
By Kano Hogar (died 1888)
JAPANESE, Kano ScHooL
In the Imperial Art School, Tokvo
THE deity is shown here as Hibo Kwannon, the Compas-
sionate Mother.
MAHAYANA, THE BROADER COMMUNION 17
Among the Bodhisattva or saints mentioned in this book, the most popu-
lar is Kwannon,' who is worshipped as the goddess of mercy. Taking the
plastic representations of this deity alone, a long history of art may be
written. But I must here confine myself to two pictures, one representing
the opening scenes of the book and the other Kwannon.
The first one, the Hokké Mandala (Plate VI), is an old Chinese painting,
probably of the middle ninth century, and represents Buddha immersed
in deep contemplation just before he revealed the whole truth of the
Lotus (Hokké). The scene is the Vulture Peak, one of his favorite resorts ;?
trees grow on the mountain-side, some of them flowering in white or red.
The left side of the picture opens in a gorge stretching far into the distance.
Buddha, wearing red robes, is seated in the centre in the posture of con-
templation, and several saints sit beside him as representatives of the
human and celestial beings who adore him. The utmost tranquillity pre-
vails throughout the landscape, and the figures are in dignified composure;
but it is implied that marvels are soon to take place and that in the light of
the coming revelation the whole scene is to be transfigured into one of
resplendent glory. Looking upon this picture we can imagine with what
ardor the artist must have painted, and what an amount of piety and
enthusiasm his work must have inspired while it hung, during more than a
thousand years, on the walls of the Hokké-do.* The picture, even apart
from its suggestions and implications, is a great achievement of artistic
genius in the grandeur of its composition, the dignity of the figures, and
the harmonious combination of colors.
The second example (Plate VII) is a modern Japanese painting, the chief
work of the unique genius of Kano Hogai.* The work was finished soon
before his death and he had no time to add his signature, as if his life ended
when its labor was accomplished. The picture is preserved, together with
his numerous preliminary sketches and previous attempts, in the Art
1 Sanskrit, Avalokitesvara; Chinese, Kuan Yin. Concerning this deity, see further chapters m1 and Iv.
2 Among the followers of the Lotus of Truth, the name Vulture Peak always suggests a paradise,
because Buddha declares in the book that the place where he or his faithful disciples live and preach the
Truth is the indestructible Land of Treasures.
3 Of this temple, near the Central Cathedral in Nara, I shall speak in the second chapter.
4 Died 1888.
18 I. BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
School of Tokyo. His conception was the inexhaustible love of Kwannon,
the Mother of All, who is sending her offspring from the realm of light and
purity down to the world of sorrows and tribulations. She stands in the
midst of golden illumination and resplendent clouds. Her left hand carries
a tiny branch of willow, a symbol of meekness, and from the flask held in
her right hand falls a drop of water, the water of wisdom, which forms a
transparent globe containing a baby. The child looks back in gratitude or
in farewell towards the mother above, his lovely hands joined in adoration.
The place where the baby is destined to be born is the world of dark clouds
among which rugged peaks are seen. The love of the mother, a virgin
mother of heavenly dignity, is a pure maternal love, but it exhibits a depth
of tragic compassion. She knows the toils her baby is going to encounter
in the world below, but she is resolute in sending him there and sure that
he will confront heroically the troubles of human life, and carry among
mankind the love and wisdom of his mother by emulating the spirit of
Buddha’s saints.
Whether the heavenly light can penetrate the realm of dark clouds,
whether the baby can perform his mission among the rugged precipices and
rocks of life, are questions which may arise in the minds of those who look
at the picture. But the artist was sure that the miracle is being accom-
plished even now and by ourselves; for the assurance given by Buddha as
to the future of his religion is not vain, if we in our lives follow the love and
wisdom of our Mother in Heaven.
II
THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION IN JAPANESE ART
Tue Buddhist gospel of an all-embracing spiritual communion which
could be realized in human life, was preached to the East and West, imbu-
ing its converts everywhere with an aspiration for universal communion.
Peoples whose mental gaze had reached hardly beyond tribal or national
limits were taught that individual life should be regarded as inseparable
from communal life, that man’s true happiness should be sought, not in
the fulfilment of selfish ambitions, but in fellowship with all celestial and
terrestrial existences. These teachings, formulated in doctrines, practised
in conduct and expressed in art, exercised a great influence also upon the
political ideals of nations, by convincing government leaders that the state
should be not merely a political organization of might and right, but an
institution for the advancement of spiritual harmony and moral edifica-
tion among the people as a unified body. Let me, however, omit any further
account of these developments on the continent of Asia, and pass at once
to Japan, where the influence of Buddhist ideals was so conspicuously
shown in the close connection between religious faith, state organization
and artistic achievement.
It was in 538 a.p.! that Buddhism made its official entrance into Japan
through a message presented to the Japanese Court by the King of
Pekché,? a principality of Korea. The message said: “This teaching
(dharma) is the most excellent of all teachings; it brings endless and
immeasurable blessings to all believers, even unto attainment of the
Enlightenment (Bodhi) without comparison. Moreover, it has come to
Korea from far-off India, and the peoples of the countries lying between
are now zealous followers of it and none is outside the pale.”’ These words,
accompanied by Buddhist scriptures, a fine statue and other exquisite
works of art, were, to many, a marvellous revelation, seeming to come as if
1 The date usually given is 552. 2 Japanese, Kudara.
20 II. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
in response to the necessity for a religion which could give the people some
higher ideal than the worship of local gods.
At this time the government was endeavoring to achieve a measure of
centralization, and among the leaders of this movement the new religion
secured many advocates. But it was not until the end of the century,
under the nominal reign of the Empress Suiko, that Buddhism, after years
of varying fortune, found in the person of the Prince-Regent Shotoku —
the Holy Virtuous — a thinker and statesman who fully grasped the ideal
of spiritual communion. His regency (593-622) marked an epoch in the
rise of Japanese civilization. In his ‘‘ Constitution,” issued in 604, he pro-
claimed, as fundamental principles, that harmony should be the basis of
state organization, and that faith in the Three Treasures of the Buddhist
religion! should be the foundation of national and individual life. Besides
effecting these far-reaching political reforms, he established numerous
temples which became the centres of learning, artistic activity, music and
charity, and in all these undertakings his ambition, as organizer and
patron, was to foster the Buddhist ideal of universal communion in daily
practice, and thus to realize a true union of state and religion. He himself
was a philosopher of keen insight as well as a devout Buddhist of profound
piety, and we may be sure that his religious politics were not a mere
expedient, nor his artistic taste a mere estheticism. As a far-sighted states-
man he worked for the nation’s unity and welfare in both its secular and
spiritual aspects, seeking expression for the aim of state organization in
the achievements of Buddhist institutions and in the promotion of Bud-
dhist art. Without his guidance Buddhism could never have become so
rapidly the vital factor of national life, and without his inspiring patronage
Buddhist art could hardly have flourished so successfully among his
countrymen. It is, therefore, quite natural that he is, even now, revered
as the founder of Buddhism in Japan and also as the patron saint of
artists.”
The most conspicuous manifestation of the Prince’s ideal may be seen
1 See above, page 5. -
? Tn the Art School of Tokyé there is a shrine dedicated to him, and the artists celebrate every year the
anniversary of his death, the twenty-second of February.
PRINCE SHOTOKU AND HIS WORK 21
in Buddhist architecture. The temple of his time was a composite of
many buildings. The principal edifice was the Golden Hall; about it
stood a meeting-hall, two meditation halls for summer and winter re-
spectively, a drum-tower, a bell-tower and one or two five-storied
pagodas. A long gallery enclosed all these, and in the southern side of
the gallery stood prominently a two-storied gateway. This general plan
symbolized the communion of saints around the central Buddha, and
the effect. was imposing. Within the Golden Hall was a platform or dais,
about four feet high, representing the cosmos. In the centre of this plat-
form stood a statue of Buddha together with statues of his attendants,
and its corners were guarded by the four Guardian Kings, protectors of
the religion and its believers. Pillars supported a complicated overhead
structure in which were empanelled groups of angels holding various
musical instruments in their hands and hovering among clouds. The sur-
rounding walls were frescoed with pictures of Buddha’s paradise and of
his saints; and the ceiling, painted in various designs, was hung with
pendants of silk or of decorated metal plaques intended to suggest the
glories of heaven. Worship was performed in front of the central statue,
and processions marched around the platform or along the gallery to the
accompaniment of music.
These temples, however, were places not only of worship but also of
learning, where philosophy and music were taught, and moral discipline
was inculcated. Moreover, charitable institutions, such as_ hospitals,
infirmaries, and dispensaries, were attached to them, as means of putting
the Buddhist ideal of universal love into actual practice. The whole foun-
dation thus served as a focus of the Buddhist religion, morality and art
which now became integral parts of the national life.
Among many temples founded by Prince Shotoku a few remain in the
original edifices, while others, rebuilt after fires, preserve only the original
1 Professor Edward S. Morse, in his Japanese Homes and their Surroundings (New York, 1885), says
(p. 46): ‘‘ There is something truly majestic in the appearance of the broad and massive temples, with the
grand upward sweep of their heavily-tiled roofs and deep-shaded eaves, with intricate maze of supports
and carvings beneath; the whole sustained on colossal round posts locked and tied together by equally
massive timbers.”” To this remark I may add that in the architecture of the seventh and eighth centuries
the combined effect of the group of buildings as described above played a greater part than in any of the
following periods.
22 Il. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
plans. Of these two classes, Horyu-ji, near Nara, and Tenn6-ji, in Osaka,
may be taken as respective examples. The former (Plate VIII A) has stood
since the beginning of the seventh century. It was built for a college of
Buddhist philosophy, and is, in regard to both architecture and contents,
the most precious relic of early Buddhist art. The latter, which has passed
through alternate periods of decay and renovation, is essentially the same,
in design and in the varied uses of its buildings, as the type already de-
scribed, but the purpose of the foundation is worthy of special notice.
Although the temple now stands on a hillside far from the sea, it was origi-
nally situated on the water-front of the port leading to the capital of that
time. This site was chosen by the Prince, in order that foreign envoys and
missionaries might be welcomed, at their landing, through the gateway of
Buddhist communion into the sanctuary of worship. We of to-day,
familiar with the bustle of a modern customs service, may at least try to
imagine how these travellers of long ago, after their tedious sea journey,
stepped into the Land of Sunrise, and, accompanied by processions and
music, were ushered into the group of beautiful edifices. Surely this foun-
dation alone amply testifies to the high ideals of the Prince and to the
grandeur of his achievement.
The seventh century was a period of rapid advance in J apanese civiliza-
tion. National unity resulted in the establishment of a firm Imperial
régime, and Buddhism manifested its vigor in moral, social and artistic
activities. This progress culminated in the glory of the era of Tempyo
(729-749), or Heavenly Peace, in which the ideal of a true union between
Church and State reached its mature expression; and art, especially archi-
tecture and sculpture, became more a manifestation of national impulse
than a product of individual initiative. Buddhism worked for the benefit
of the state, for the security of the Throne, for the weal of the people; and
the state, in turn, was dedicated to the Buddhist cause, that is, to a reali-
zation of the ideal communion in and through the actual life of the nation.
Government, court nobles and people alike contributed to the religion and
its art. Each household had its family sanctuary, every province built its
ease. Sa. 4
LATE VIII (A & B)
Gotpen Hatt, Gareway, AND Pacopa or Héryi-s1
DOs: Ser IN ea GAEL Se : ur sie See arse PAG goes oe
es re
(B) West Front or Tae Hoxké-pd or Topar-st, Nara —
PLATE VIII (A & B)
A. Tue GoLtpEN Hatt, GATEWAY AND PaGcopa or Horyt-s1
SEEN FROM THE MEETING HALL, LOOKING SOUTH
THE temple is known to have been founded early in the
seventh century, 606-613, but there is still some disagreement
as to whether the present buildings date from that time or are
reconstructions erected after a fire which occurred in 670.
Most architects believe the existing structures to be the origi-
nals, though the four carved pillars supporting the upper roof
of the Golden Hall were added in the seventeenth century,
and the shed roofs protecting the lower parts of the Golden
Hall and of the Pagoda are also later additions.
B. West Front or THE HoxkKké-p0 oF Topar-s1, NARA
FounpDED as the Konsho-ji in 733, but later (circa 752)
absorbed by the great monastery of Todai-ji, and thereafter
known as the Hokké-do. The present asymmetry of the roof
is due to the addition of the hall of devotion in the Kamakura
period, and the whole edifice has been recently repaired.
sit ee te.
Sais Pee 0’
Apne
Co ee
GuarpIAN Kincs
BB
Zz
SPIE
Two OF THE Rous
PLATE IX (A & B)
Two oF THE Four GuarpIAN Kincs
JAPANESE, E1gHtH CENTURY
In the Kaidan-in of Tédai-ji, Nara
A. Komoxu-Ten (Sanskrit, Virupaksa), the Far-Gazer,
Guardian of the West.
B. Zocho-ten (Sanskrit, Viriidhaka), the Lord of Growth,
Guardian of the South.
The other two Guardian Kings are: Jikoku-ten (Sanskrit,
Dhrtarastra), the Land-Bearer, Guardian of the East, and
Tamon-ten (Sanskrit, Vaisravana), the Well-Famed, Guar-
dian of the North.
THE ART OF TEMPYO "93
own Cathedral, and in the capital, at Nara, a Central Cathedral
was erected (743-752), the consummate expression of the splendor of
Tempyo. |
This Cathedral, known as Todai-ji, was dedicated to the Buddha
Vairochana,! or “[luminator,’” whose colossal bronze statue occupies the
central position. Originally there were two seven-storied pagodas in front
of the main building, which was further surrounded by many smaller
temples and shrines, dedicated to various saints and each containing a
cosmic platform adorned with numerous statues massed around a central
figure. Fortunately one of these minor edifices, the Hokké-do (Plate VIII B),
in which the Hokké Mandala of this Museum was deposited, stands
almost intact; and another, the Kaidan-in, or sanctuary for initiation into
Buddhist mystery, is preserved in its original plan. The group of these
larger and smaller buildings, situated on the gentle slope of the Kasuga
hills and surrounded by giant trees, exhibits a synthetic beauty of art and
nature designed to embody the glory of the Kingdom of Buddha, and at
the same time to symbolize the monarchic constitution of the state sup-
ported by unity of religious faith and moral ideals.
Thus the sculpture and architecture of Tempy6, neither of which has
ever been excelled in grandeur and perfection by later ages, were integral
parts of Buddhism; but it is in sculpture — in the expression of individual-
ity and in the composition of groups — that the power of Buddhist inspira-
tion is most clearly shown. The group in Buddhist sculpture is not, how-
ever, an inseparable composition as in Greek art, but simply an array of
single statues enclosed within the railings of the cosmic platform, the
whole representing an assembly of the saints around the Universal Lord.
Various qualities and attributes are manifest in the dignified postures and
vivid expressions of the individual figures, while their joint adoration of
Buddha is brought out by the grouping; and to this must be added the
imposing magnitude of the statues, of which the smallest is not less than
life-size. Here, in the sculpture of Tempyo, we discern the final result of
the union of Buddhist ideals with Greek genius; and here, too, the tangible
1 So called in Sanskrit; in Japanese, Birushana or Rushana.
ah Il. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
embodiment of Buddhist teachings attained its perfection in the happiest
harmony of idealistic conception and realistic execution.
The great bronze Buddha of Todai-ji is over sixty feet high including the
lotus pedestal. Its head and right shoulder were destroyed in repeated fires
and replaced by rather poor substitutes, but in the lower part of the body
and especially in the lotus pedestal we can see the beauty and grandeur of
the original. Buddha is seated in the dignified posture in which he preaches
the cosmic truths ceaselessly and eternally. Behind him rises an aureola of
overlapping double circles composed of resplendent flames in which nu-
merous apparitions of Buddhahood are seen, and beneath him is a gigantic
lotus seat symbolizing the cosmos. The petals of this huge flower
represent various countries, and on each of them are engraved figures of
saints and angels who have come together there to adore the Buddha,
Lord of the Universe, and to propagate the truth among people of all lands
and times. Their attitudes, robes, crowns and emblems indicate their
respective virtues as well as the various missions they are destined to fulfil
for the sake of men. In short, the whole statue, like the temple of which it
forms the central feature, is a representation of the cosmic spirit and a
visible embodiment of the communion of all beings enlightened by
Buddha’s wisdom. .
More realistic and more specialized in motive are the life-size figures of
the four Guardian Kings which stand at the corners of the cosmic platform
in the Kaidan-in, or Hall of Initiation. The two reproduced in Plate [IX (A
& B) may, perhaps, sufficiently illustrate the characteristic qualities of these
four statues, whose expressions are similar though their postures differ.
They stand — each on the prostrate body of an evil demon — alert and
ready to ward off all vices and wickedness which might threaten the men
of faith and the countries where righteousness prevails. One grasps a
sword; another a spear; another upholds a shrine, the repository of truth;
and in the powerful muscular tension of face, body and limbs, the invinci-
ble will and tireless energy of each are vigorously portrayed.
Quite different in feeling are two heroic statues which stand beside the
central Buddha on the cosmic platform of the Hokké-dé, a chapel dedicated
THE ART OF TEMPYO Dy)
to the propagation of the True Law. These figures represent two celestial
lords, Indra, ruler of kings and warriors, and Brahma, king of the heavenly
hosts, the highest deities of the Hindu pantheon, who are said to have come
down from their abodes in heaven and paid homage to Buddha by partici-
pating in the assembly of his followers. One of them, Brahma,’ is repro-
~ duced in Plate X, and the point to be noted is the realistic execution of the
sculpture. It is ruled by no convention. The figure is simply a human
being of perfect proportions, wearing robes and a headdress such as might
have been worn by the nobility of India or China; yet the dignified pres-
ence and the noble face are evidence enough that the man here represented
must be a heavenly or kingly person. His gesture is a simple joining of
hands; yet no one can mistake the intention of that gesture or fail to see
the devotion of heart expressed in his attitude. Here a god is made man;
and this was not a mere flight of imagination but a typical representation
of the faith of that time. Indeed these two statues were made after the
model — in spirit, though not in form — of the Emperor Shomu who
erected the Central Cathedral. The Sovereign of that time, who was
believed to be almost a divine being, paid homage to the personal repre-
sentative of the cosmic truth, and this was the inspiration from which
the artist? derived his conception of the statues.
In the year 749, on the occasion of a thanksgiving, the Emperor,
Empress-consort and Crown Princess, attended by hundreds and thou-
sands of the court nobles, ladies, retainers and priests, proceeded from the
palace to the Central Cathedral, where services were held, and the Sover-
eign bowed before the Great Buddha, declaring himself to be the servant
of the Three Treasures. This was, perhaps, the most magnificent religious
observance which has ever taken place in Japan,’ and it is easy to imagine
what a solemn grandeur of ceremony must have been possible in the
presence of these statues, amid the elaborate surroundings of a gigantic
1 Japanese, Bonten. 2 Probably the Abbot Roben, Advisor to the Emperor.
3 What remains of the apparatus and instruments used on that occasion is preserved at Nara in the
Imperial Magazine, called Shés6-in, close to the Cathedral. Among the treasures stored there is a marble
relief in Byzantine style and a picture of a lady in old Persian robes, showing the contact of Japan
with the world through Buddhism. All of the treasures are reproduced and described in Toyei-shuko,
Toky6, 1908.
26 Il. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
temple; for Buddhist rituals are gorgeous with candlelight, incense,
flowers, music, processions and litanies, all artistically combined. But, in
any case, the full significance of Buddhist art cannot be appreciated apart
from the rituals. A statue, however beautiful in itself, if seated desolate, or
crowded among others in a museum, is only a caput mortuum of an organic
body;' and a temple thrown open to the curiosity of visitors is but a de-
serted house devoid of life. The real beauty of a Gothic cathedral cannot
be entirely dissociated from incense, lights and church music; nor is it
otherwise with Buddhist architecture and sculpture. They help to com-
plete a synthesis of beauty corresponding to the ideal of universal com-
munion.
Now, leaving the eighth century and the glory of Tempyé art, let us
pass over the next two hundred years and take up another manifestation
of the ideal of communion which first appeared in Japan during the tenth
century. Union of state and religion and the manifestation thereof in art
had, meanwhile, continued to develop, although in the ninth century a
new turn was given by the importation from China of the Shingon sect of
Buddhism, with which I shall deal in the next chapter. The tenth century
was a period in which the corruption of the priesthood began to evince
itself, but beneath such developments at the surface there was streaming
already an undercurrent of faith in Amita,? the Buddha of Infinite Life
and Light, whose story is told in one of the Mahayana books, — the
Sukhavati-vyuha, or “Description of the Land of Bliss.”” This Buddha is
believed to have taken a vow to save all beings and to prepare for them,
far in the West, a paradise, realized by him through long training and the
accumulation of innumerable merits, whither any one who believes in his
mercy and invokes his name shall be taken, even from this life, — there
to participate in the communion of the Saints. This new phase in the
development of Buddhist faith was a religion of personal devotion and
* The architectural design and the grouping of statues in Gallery no. 5 of the Department of Chinese
and Japanese Art are intended to lessen the inherent defects of Museum exhibition.
? So in Sanskrit, the full name being Amitabha, “Infinite Light,” or Amitayus, “Infinite Life.” In
Japan the name is commonly pronounced Amida.
z
of
OF THE
, Kine
B
‘Brauma, Kine or Tae Heaventy Hosts
>i
ad
Japanese, Eicnta Century
In the Hokké-d6 of Tadai-ji, Nara
Dry lacquer sculpture.
AMITA-BUDDHISM AND ITS ART 27
salvation by mercy, and was cherished by pious monks in the course of the
tenth century. Toward the end of the eleventh century it had come to the
front, and its full rise may be dated in the second half of the twelfth cen-
tury, since which time it has continued to be the most influential factor of
J apanese Buddhism.
Belief in a merciful Deity and his paradise has always acted as a powerful
incentive to artistic expression. Thus the Buddha Amita, of illumined
body, sitting with his saints in the midst of celestial trees and flowers, or
appearing in visions to the pious, or coming, attended by the heavenly
hosts, to receive the dying; and the bliss of those who were reborn in his
realms and now adore the merciful Lord from their seats in the resplendent
lotus flowers,' — these scenes furnished splendid materials to the activity
of artists. Here the conception of spiritual communion was not essentially
different from that of former ages, but the personal appearance of
Buddha and concrete descriptions of his paradise became more commonly
the themes of painting, with freer composition and more variegated color-
ing. It is also to be noticed that the Japanese genius worked, in these pic-
tures, to soften the curves, to refine the colors, and to make the facial
expression of the figures more human and tender. |
The most precious specimens of this category are the mural decorations
in the Phoenix Hall of Byod6-in near Kyoto, and two triptychs sometimes
attributed to Eshin.2 The Phoenix Hall, a chapel of a nobleman, was fin-
ished in 1053, and the paintings on the walls and door-wings were executed
by Tamenari, a master of the Takuma school. One of them represents
Amita Buddha seated amid the saints and glories of his paradise. [llumin-
ing rays emanate from his eyes and extend downward to a building which
is, perhaps, meant to be the palace of the noble who dedicated the chapel
to the Buddha Amita. Unfortunately the painting is much defaced, but
it still retains something of its original splendor of color and composition.
The two triptychs are said to be the work of Eshin, a learned and pious
monk, who described in a book the miseries of inferior births and the
glories of the Land of Bliss. In the verbal delineation of those visionary
1 For these descriptions, see the Sacred Books of the East, vol. 4g, part ii, pp. 91-98.
2 Genshin, better known as Eshin or the Abbot of Eshin monastery ((g42-1017).
28 Il. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
scenes his talent may be compared with that of Dante; but he was, in
addition, a great master of painting, so rich in colors, quiet in tone, free in
composition and soaring in conception, that he may be called the Fra
Angelico of Japan. One of these works here reproduced (Plate XI) shows
the Buddha Amita coming to receive a believer. The dignity of the central
figure, the variety in posture of the saints playing on musical instruments,
the softness of the variegated clouds, and the charming glimpse of a land-
scape below, display most inspiringly his artistic genius and religious
fervor. The other Amita picture (Plate I, Frontispiece) represents
Buddha accompanied by two attendant Bodhisattva,' appearing over a
hill range. The contrast between the golden radiance of the three heav-
enly persons and the fresh green of hills and trees; the harmony of the
divine composure with the serenity of nature, suggestive of the mercy of
Buddha pervading the light of a tranquil morning, — these are expres-
sions of the monk’s inspired vision. A hymn of the same century sings: —
Ah! pity ’t is, we cannot see the Buddha face to face,
Though He is present always, everywhere.
And yet, perchance, as in a vision, He will come to us
In the calm morning hour, when no man stirs.
Such visions Eshin was the first to paint, and he did it with the breadth
and dexterity of a master. |
Throughout the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries this gentle
and beautiful art kept pace with the spread of Amita worship. Vigor gave
place to meekness, sweet harmony became more conspicuous than virile
inspiration, and the artists worked in ecstasies of tender piety and self-
forgetting devotion. The results are seen in the majestic serenity of the
Great Buddha of Kamakura (Plate XII), in the charming statues of
Amita and his attendants (Plate XIII), and in many delicate pictures in
this Museum.
Another, but contemporary, manifestation of this faith is apparent in
the long scroll-paintings which are so closely connected with the genre
1 Kwannon (Sanskrit, Avalokitesvara) and Seishi (Sanskrit, Maha-Sthanaprapta).
PLATE XI
Amita BUDDHA AND TWENTY-FIVE BopHISATTVA
By Esxuin S6zu GENSHIN
JAPANESE, 942-1017
Owned by Kéyasan Monastery,
and now deposited in the Imperial Museum, Tokyo
Tue Buppua and his attendants are shown welcoming the
souls of the faithful to Paradise.
Blank Page Digitally Inserted
PLATE XID
u .
Amira BuppHa at KaMAKURA —
% ar, xe
PLATE XID
av Arta Buppaa at Kamakura
Mippce Tuirteenta CENTURY |
Bronze casting.
Sa. ee
—— ee
PAO fy
a
=
es
=
=
aa
2
a
‘Jooyos
TaYU, ey} Jo yuourdopAgp oye] & Jo sofdurexe se ueye}, oq AvUT SoINSY OM} OSU],
‘SIO AaT[aq oNI} oy} 0} oseuroy SXed ‘uOpsiM s eyULYy JO Jamod oy} Suruosoidadl ‘4Jo]
8} UO “TYSTEG [IM Sostpereg 07 s[nos snord oy} SUTUMOOTEM JO opnzi77e OY} UI UMOYS
SI ‘eylury Jo AoJ0UL 94} SuTyUsseIdel “YYSII oY} UO ‘UOUURMY ‘oUI} oY} JO O1}SL19}
-oereyo drysueutyIOM oY} ‘SSeip Ss} JO Sado 4jfos oy} UL pue Apoq pouorsodoid
-[[oM S}I UE ‘SMOYS pue ‘pfoS YALA prepioAo AyoyeOTPep SI ‘SuIsseyq Jo opnyiyyze oy} UI
eyppng eyWULy ‘oinsy [eqjue. oy], ‘poised einyeuey oye] oy} Jo [Te oe SIoquIoUI
SH Ysnoy} ‘1oy}050} suopeq AyTeuLsiI0 you pip oanydqnos poom jo dnods sIH],
uojsog ‘sjly aug fo unasnyyy ay) uy "
AUNING') HINGHLYNOT ATUVY “ASANVAVe
david], VLINY dH
HIX ALVId
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THE MEDIA.VAL GENRE PAINTING 29
painting of the period. The touches of landscape in Eshin’s pictures and
the scenes! of transmigration described in his writings, were significant.
The changes in Buddhist art begun by the pious monk heralded a gradual
deviation from the iconographic rules exemplified in Buddhist figures
brought over from Asia,® and this process was accelerated by the combined
influence of the nature-mysticism associated with Amita-Buddhism and
the pictorial representation of various events associated with the life his-
tories of religious leaders. The result was a religiously inspired genre
painting which became a prominent factor of Japanese Buddhist art in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Scenes such as the appearance of the
Buddha Amita before some pious man, the falling of heavenly flowers on
the occasion of a virtuous monk’s sermon, or a pathetic conversion among
the court ladies, were represented; and side by side with the bliss of para-
dise, the miseries of the doomed or of ghostly existences were depicted.
In paintings of this kind the activities of human life, together with their
backgrounds of houses and gardens, hills and trees, were regarded simply
as one aspect of the whole realm of transmigration, —a stage in spiritual
communion, a scene of the manifestation of Buddha’s mercy.
This brief description may serve to show in what sense Eshin was the
pioneer of both the religion and the art of the thirteenth century. But a
great distinction between his work and its subsequent development con-
sists in the later practice of using long, horizontal scrolls, on which the
scenes were delineated in series. This is only a difference in technique,
but it had a wide bearing in modifying the use of the pictures. A painting
of Buddha and his saints, whether on a vertical, hanging scroll* or on a
panel, was intended primarily for more or less general worship; while the
pictures executed on horizontal scrolls * served better the ends of privacy
and narration. This does not mean that the altar piece gave way entirely
to the long scroll, nor that the genre painters worked with less piety than |
1 Actually depicted in paintings attributed to Kosé no Hirotaka, a contemporary of Eshin. The pic-
tures are in Raiko-ji, near Otsu.
2 See chapter m1. 3 Japanese, kakemono.
4 Japanese, makimono. Perhaps an intermediate stage in the transition from kakemono to makimono
is represented by the pictures of the resorts of transmigration, attributed to Hirotaka. They are in the
form of kakemono, but the scenes are arranged in horizontal registers.
30 II. THE BUDDHIST IDEAL OF COMMUNION
the painters of altar pieces. In many cases one and the same artist worked
on both kinds of painting and the illustrations of the saints’ lives were
respected almost to the point of worship. Yet this change in treatment was
destined to promote the infiltration of secular motives and the medieval
religious genre became the forerunner of the modern genre of totally pro-
fane intention. After all, the freedom of composition, the softly graded
color range and the diversity of scenes which characterize the rise of the
‘Buddhist genre, were all concomitant with the popularization of religious
teachings in the thirteenth century and after.
Viewed by such light as I have been able to shed on the subject, it is
clear that the beauty of Buddhist art was, for the most part, founded on
the ideal of spiritual communion, whether in this world or in a heavenly
realm. This ideal it was that gave to Buddhism the power of expansion
beyond the boundaries of nations, fired its adherents with missionary zeal,
and inspired the imagination of its artists and poets. One who can appre-
ciate this ideal will understand Buddhist art, and will discover in the hearts
of the Japanese a tone of tenderness and a depth of sympathy which are
the essential conditions of artistic creation and enjoyment.
III
BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM AND THE SYMBOLISM OF ITS ART
Havine seen how the Buddhist ideal of communion developed in various
special directions and gave rise to corresponding manifestations in art,
let us now turn back to the ninth century and examine a form of Buddhism
which found expression in an extremely comprehensive and striking combi-
nation of spiritual ideals and material embodiment, of speculative thought
and mystic ritual, and in a union of the Buddhist, Hindu, Persian, Chinese
and Japanese pantheons into one cycle centred in Buddha. The Japanese
name of this Buddhism is Shingon,' or the True Word, and it may be
designated as a synthetic or symbolic Buddhism. It views the universe
as a cosmotheism, or, more explicitly, it defines the total cosmos as Divin-
ity, whereof particular features may, for certain purposes, be assembled
under the forms of separate deities; and its art was an attempt to represent
these innumerable deities, saints, demons, angels and other ultra-human
beings embodying the inexhaustible beauties, powers, activities and mys-
teries, by means of pictures, statues, symbols and rites. In entering upon
this subject we must — as if about to traverse a lofty mountain pass —
be prepared to go among mists and clouds, to encounter ravines and
glaciers; we shall meet superb figures and beautiful scenery, but also awe-
inspiring sights and forms which excite terror.
The ideal of spiritual communion extended, as I have already indicated,
not only to the celestial and animal existences but even further to the
demoniac and non-sentient beings, and was destined to culminate in a
world-view, according to which the universe is comprised in the Buddhist
communion and constitutes the real entity of Buddhahood. Buddha is the
perfect person who attained the life of all-embracing wisdom and love,
thus identifying himself with the cosmos and all the lives in it. The final’
substratum of Buddhahood is, therefore, the cosmos, including its spiritual
1 Sanskrit, Mantra ; Chinese, Chén-yen.
32 Ill. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
and material aspects, and Buddha is the Lord who rules it, not from above,
but from within. His spirit is the cosmic soul which, like a seed, evolves
out of itself all the phenomena of the universe. The cosmic life thus
regarded as the enactment of the infinite communion ruled by Buddha,
the Cosmic Soul, may be and must be grasped and experienced by the soul
which lives the life not of an individual but of the whole communion; and
this soul, when it transcends the limit of selfish narrowness and individu-
ality, can include all existences within its domain, and discover in itself the
germs of all phenomena. This means also an expansion of individual life
to the compass of the universe, by living in communion and participation
with the cosmic life. The absorption of self into the world amounts to an
identification of the microcosmos with the macrocosmos.
This belief, formulated in general terms, is the fundamental ideal com-
mon to nearly all branches of Buddhism; and though Japanese Buddhism
of the eighth century laid special emphasis on the union of the religious
ideal with state organization, it was at bottom a cosmotheism and idealism
of the same sort. The distinguishing feature of Shingon Buddhism was its
embodiment of this cosmotheism in concrete forms and tangible mani-
festations. Sweeping over Central Asia and China, and later reaching
Japan at the beginning of the ninth century, it succeeded in absorbing
the pantheons of these different peoples into its cosmotheistic domain and
in uniting them with the central conception of a cosmic Lord, the Great
Illuminator (Sanskrit, Maha-Vairochana; Japanese, Dat-nichi), a former
title of Buddha which was now specified as a distinct personality.
According to the tenets of this school, Buddha, the Cosmic Lord, is not
amere spirit. His body is the whole of material existence, and even a grain
of dust partakes of his spiritual life and owes its existence to him. The
world is a living organism, manifesting its life everywhere and endeavoring
to attain full self-consciousness in every particle, — a view which Gustav
Theodor Fechner taught in his “ Zend-Avesta,”’ one thousand years later.
Moreover, just as we men live and act by the functions of thought, speech,
and bodily motion, so the world and its components are living by these
threefold activities. To use modern phrases, the energy of the cosmos is
SHINGON BUDDHISM 33
the world’s thought, every sound is its speech, and every movement its
bodily action. These activities are not merely external motions of the
material world, but are growths out of a deeper foundation of life and are
controlled by spiritual forces. Such inner meanings of the world’s life can
be comprehended by us and realized in our personal lives, when we identify
ourselves with the cosmos. They are mysteries to the ordinary mind, but
realities to those who have mastered the secrets and worked them out in life.
How, then, can we realize these mysteries and thus commune with the
cosmic life? Here the Shingon Buddhism offers us very recondite but prac-
tical ideas and observances. The world is composed of the various groups
of spiritual forces expressing themselves in the forms and behavior of ma-
terial phenomena, each of which, according to Shingon teaching, may be
regarded as a deity, with his or her special attributes, functions and inten-
tions. The number of these deities, like the particles of the universe, can
never be exhausted; nevertheless they do not constitute a mere aggregate,
but are grouped in a definite system of classes and finally united in the
cosmic person or spirit of the Great Illuminator. Thus the Shingon cosmo-
theism is most keen in emphasizing both the diversity of qualities and
powers, and their unity in the all-embracing Lord.
Viewed in this way, the beings and things of the world exist in order to
realize their participation in the omnipresent activities of the Lord, and to
live, think and express themselves as He does. We human beings, fur-
nished with body and mind, are a concrete manifestation of the whole
cosmic structure, and are destined to represent the cosmic life in personal
life; but being shrouded in illusion and selfishness we have lost sight of the
inner tie which unites us with the Great Illuminator, and of our real com-
munion with other beings. It is, therefore, the purpose of Buddha in his
innumerable manifestations as various deities and phenomena, to enlighten
us in regard to our original kinship with him and in our destiny to restore
it, so that we may achieve a full participation in the cosmic life.
The special tenet of Shingon consists in showing us these educative
activities of Buddha in concrete representations of his virtues and powers.
34 Ill. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
This is done by visualizing in pictures, statues and rites the symbolic or
anthropomorphic manifestations of Buddha and of the various deities
which are his emanations. The Great Illuminator, for instance, is some-
times represented as a golden Buddha sitting on a red or variegated lotus
flower, his hands folded in the posture of profound contemplation;
again, he appears as a Buddha perfectly white in body sitting on a
white lotus and expressing in his joined hands his intention of revealing
truths (Plate XIV). He is shown also in a formidable aspect sitting or
standing, his whole person expressive of resentment and indignation. In
this. guise he is called the Immobile (Sanskrit, Achala; Japanese, Fudo),
and his fierce eyes glare at every evil thought or base passion, while the
sword and rope he holds signify his readiness to menace and restrain every
sinful act (Plate XV). His powers may also be visualized by associating
with his figure a number of other deities, each of whom embodies a certain
attribute or intention of the Buddha. When, for example, he is surrounded
by four other Buddhas, the arrangement is meant to signify that he is the
kernel and fountain-head of indefatigable determination, inexhaustible
blessings, spiritual enlightenment and endless adaptability, respectively
represented by the persons of the surrounding four.’ And again each of
these four may be represented in various forms and accompanied by sub-
ordinate figures which convey their respective functions.
The characteristics of these deities are represented chiefly by facial
expression and bodily posture. But no less important roles are assigned to
details of attire, such as the forms of crowns, the colors of lotus pedestals,
the shapes and decorations of halos, or the emblems held in the hands, —
all of which are intended to symbolize virtues and powers and to embody
certain aspects of the cosmic activities. For instance, when the left hand
is laid palm upward on the knees, the right hand laid in the same way upon
the left, and the thumbs joined at the tips, the combination is meant to
express a fusion in contemplation of the five material elements symbolized
by the fingers. Or, when the fingers of the right hand clasp the fore-finger
of the left according to a prescribed configuration, the gesture symbol-
1 See further the explanation accompanying Plate XVI A.
PLATE XIV A
DAI-NICHI, THE GREAT ILLUMINATOR
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In this work of the middle Kamakura period the deity
appears as Ichiji-kinrin, a supreme manifestation of Dai-
nichi shown in the upper middle square of the Diamond Cycle,
as indicated by the characteristic aureola and the whitish tone
on both aureola and figure.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
Seas — Ke
ke
*
| PLATE XV
Fupd anp ais ATTENDANTS
PLATE XV
Fupo AND HIS ATTENDANTS
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, Kamakura Periop, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A FIERCE manifestation of Maha-Vairochana (see p. 32),
holding a sword and a rope in his hands and surrounded by
flames. He is accompanied by two attendants, the boyish
Konkara (Sanskrit, Kinkara) and the elderly Seitaka (San-
skrit, Caitaka?), representing respectively the sustaining
virtue and the subjugating power of Fudo. The dragon on
the left of the picture is called Kurikara (Sanskrit, Kauri-
kara?), and is believed to represent either the subjugating
power of Fudé, or the human passions which are to be subju-
gated by the symbolic sword round which the dragon is coiled.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
na
creas
ee:
SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS 35
izes the unity of the cosmic and the individual souls in the final spiritual
enlightenment.’ Carried in the hands are flowers, jewels, weapons, staffs
and other symbols, in almost endless variety, with which definite signifi-
cations are associated, and these expressions, postures and emblems may
thus be varied so as to harmonize with the different aspects which one and
the same deity assumes according to intentions and circumstances.
To know all these signs and their symbolic meanings is a hard task, and
we, the uninitiated, must remain satisfied with being told that the possible
deities and symbols are as many as the atoms of the universe. What we
can observe for ourselves, however, is the bearing of this mystic symboliza-
tion upon painting and sculpture. When it is considered that these intri-
cate suggestions cannot be adequately represented save by pictures or
statues, and that even a slight variation in form or attitude may cause a
great difference in significance or annul ceremonial efficacy, as is taught by
Shingon, it is easy to imagine how scrupulously the painters and sculptors
must have worked. Moreover, these representations were not mere dia-
grams, but portrayals of various emotions, intentions, powers and virtues
by means of the corresponding personal appearance of the deities repre-
sented. This requirement of Shingon art acted, necessarily, as a strong
incentive to exact differentiation among the individual figures. When the
Great Illuminator is represented in. contemplation, the symbolic crown, the
mode of joining the hands, the facial expression, and the whole bodily atti-
tude must indicate that he is realizing in his mind the truth of the continu-
ity of existence. When he appears as a furious conqueror of passions, his
whole appearance must be a visualization of a formidable, all-subjugating
power. Thus, although the art of Shingon was largely controlled by its
symbolic conventions, and although some of its figures are ultra-human or
even repellent, its meticulous care in the matter of symbolic details was
combined with an eager effort for the realistic execution of human expres-
sions in face, body and limbs. This was carried out with the object of mak-
ing visible what is abstract, by expressing in tangible manifestations the
supernal powers of the deities, and thus furnishing not only the raison
1 For the symbolism of these and other gestures, see: Si-do-in-dzou, gestes de Vofficiant dans les céré-
monies mystiques des sectes Tendai et Shingon. (Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. vu.)
36 III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
d’étre of Shingon art, but also the strongest motives for delicate painting
and vigorous sculpture, the results of which are seen chiefly in the art of
the Heian period, from the ninth to the twelfth century.
To describe in detail any considerable number of these symbolic char-
acteristics displayed in Shingon pictures and statues, would take too long.
Moreover, it is possible in this Museum to study the works of art them-
selves and discover what these figures and emblems are meant to convey.
Such study will, I hope, reveal various kinds of beauty, serenity, fullness,
vitality, fury, and an expression of power even in monstrosity; for the art
of Shingon is rich in grace, in sublimity, and also in what is called the
beauty of ugliness. But another point to which I would call especial atten-
tion is a peculiar method or mood in delineation which may be called
expression in suppression.
A bodily expression is usually understood to be the natural way of
moving the muscles of the face or other parts of the body, in response to
the impulses of thought or feeling. We weep when we are sorry, we laugh
or smile when we are amused, or we lift up our arms in crying to Heaven.
These are natural expressions which are surely common to the majority
of mankind, and, indeed, it is not my intention to deny the naturalness
of any bodily expressions, but merely to emphasize the fact that some of
them are matters of usage, and that a given emotion may be expressed in
more than one way. Some people worship by joining the fingers, others by
bringing together the palms of the hands, and others by crossing the arms
upon the breast. You of the West greet by shaking hands, the ancient
Chinese joined his own hands and raised them, we Japanese bow down
the head. These are expressions under the control of usage. On the other
hand many people would, in certain cases, smile to express anger, — what |
is called by us the bitter smile; and some, instead of weeping, would sit
in silence. These I call expressions in suppression.
Doubtless the foregoing is enough to indicate on what considerations the
figures depicted in Shingon art are based. Many of them show expressions
common to every one; others conform to the usage of Asiatic peoples, and
some others exemplify the more special mode of expression in suppression.
SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS 37
This last is best seen in the figure of Fudo, a furious manifestation of the
Great Illuminator, to whom allusion has already been made. His name
means immobile or immovable, and he sits or stands, firm and motionless,
surrounded by leaping flames. His arms are bent toward his body; his
hands grasp tightly a sword and a rope; there is no attempt to suggest
action; and yet the whole posture is expressive of the utmost energy.
Another instance may be seen in the profound contemplation of the Great
Illuminator. His whole body is in a perfect equipoise; his hands rest on
his knees, his head is inclined a little forward, and his face is calm “like
the moon.” There is no expression in the active sense, yet the figure tells
of a fullness of wisdom which can be poured out without end. It is an
infinite eloquence in silence.! Nevertheless, the paradox implied in such a
phrase is not real, inasmuch as the Buddhists have always trained them-
selves to reserve emotion and to restrain expression within the bounds of
potentiality.
In this connection let me say a few words about the position of arms and
hands, and its influence upon mental states. An eminent psychologist has
said that a man does not weep because he is sad but is sad because he
weeps; and though this cannot be a whole truth, it is an interesting remark
in its bearing on the relation of bodily posture to mental conditions, which,
in turn, is one way of explaining the significance of the various attitudes of
body, arms and hands associated with deities who are presented in accord-
ance with the Shingon iconography. If the body, whether standing or sit-
ting, be held erect, the palms joined before the breast, and the position
calmly maintained; or if one hand be grasped by the other, as in the figure
of the Great Illuminator, and the respiration be quietly controlled; or if
all the muscles of the body be contracted, and the formidable facial
expression of the Immobile Deity be assumed; — then, by imitating these
and other postures in conformity with the rules of Shingon, it will become
possible gradually to acquire the mental atmosphere, the powers and the
virtues associated with these deities. This point is emphasized in order to
show that the various attitudes ascribed to the deities and represented in
1 Another instance of this will be discussed in the fourth chapter.
38 III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
painting and sculpture are not mere arbitrary conventions, but realistic
embodiments of the postures which were assumed by the Buddhists in the
course of their mental training. Surely there is much of symbolism and
conventionality in the art of Shingon, but it must also be recognized that
these pictures and statues, in spite of a strange or even repellent aspect
in some cases, are expressing human sentiments and volitions in human
ways. From this point of view it may be said that the Shingon art is a
significant achievement of genius fostered by a religion of systematic.
mysticism, expressed in association with various methods of mental train-
ing and based upon the ideas and ideals of a vast cosmotheistic system.
In so far as explanations of the individual deities and their attributes
may facilitate the understanding of this singular combination of beliefs
and art-expressions, the foregoing must, for the present, suffice. Let me,
therefore, take up the general scheme of the cosmotheistic world-view as
expressed in painting. The realization of a universal spiritual communion
is the fundamental ideal of the Buddhist religion; and the embodiment of
this ideal in a group of statues arranged on a platform and enclosed by
railings, has been already described. But the importance of this plastic
representation of the cosmic communion grew apace with the growth of
artistic skill and the multiplication of mystic ideas. Even the cosmic
scheme of the great Shingon communion was often exhibited in this way.
Nevertheless, the attempt to unify all possible varieties of saints, deities,
spirits and demons with the central world-soul, Buddha, was too compre-
hensive a plan to be adequately and conveniently expressed except by
painting.’ This circumstance gave rise to the ingenious but curious expe-
dient of projecting the whole scheme on a plane surface and arranging the
figures side by side according to classes within squares and circles. The
result was a composite picture in which the figures were grouped as if the
statues themselves had been laid down on a platform and looked at from
above. The complete cycle of these groups is called a mandala or assem-
blage, and is used to represent graphically the cosmotheistic world-view
1 Attempts were, however, made to present these groups of figures in carved reliefs which show the
transition of the Shingon mandala from sculpture to painting.
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THE MANDALA CYCLES 39
in its entirety. There are two such cycles in Shingon, intended to embody
the material manifestation and the spiritual substratum of the cosmos.
They are made up of groups of appropriate deities arranged in their
respective compartments about a central figure of the Great Illuminator
which varies according to the intention of the compartment. The assem-
blage of divinities constituting the material manifestation is called the
Womb-Store cycle;' that constituting the spiritual substratum is called the
Diamond or Indestructible cycle? (Plate XVI, A & B).
The Womb-Store is that aspect of the universe which is manifest in the
behavior of material things considered, not as dead matter, but as. the
living energy developed by the cosmic soul. What gives vitality to these
limitless existences is conceived in the forms of deities whose individual
characteristics are delineated in the pictorial cycle. Here these figures are
disposed in groups around a lotus flower, the heart of the universe. On
each of the eight petals of the lotus is a deity, and the centre is occupied by
the Great Illuminator, shown as in full possession of the cosmic truths.’
This heart and the surrounding groups are intended to signify that the
powers and virtues emanating from the central figures find separate embod-
iments in the persons of other deities who are gathered together in compart-
ments according to their several classes, such as those who carry diamond
thunderbolts (vajra), the symbol of firm resolution and indefatigable
action; those who carry lotus flowers, the sign of purity and mercy; or
jewel globes (ratna), the emblem of richness and benefaction. In the whole
cycle there are twelve compartments containing a total of four hundred
and fourteen figures, each of which represents a certain function. Their
postures differ according to their respective significance, some appearing in
dignified composure, others in charming benignity, others in fury or in the
guise of distress and misery. Each is an integral part of the cosmic activ-
ity, and all are vivifying the world by their powers.
The Diamond Cycle, illustrating the spiritual aspect of the universe,
is a graphic representation of the emanation and gradual evolution of the
! Sanskrit, Garbha-kuksi; Japanese, Taizd-kai. Sanskrit, Vajra-dhatu; Japanese, Kongo-kai.
’ This is symbolized by the gesture of the hands, which I have explained to mean the fusion of the five
elements.
ho III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
indestructible prototypes, or eternal ideas, from the Great Illuminator.
It contains nine squares which together make up the centre and eight
petals of the lotus, the heart of the material world. Each square is outlined
by narrow borders filled with mystic symbols and elaborate decorations,
and enclosing groups of deities and emblems. Thus the central square, the
source of all mental activities, contains five circles. The central circle, in
turn, contains five Buddhas in meditation (Dhyani-Buddha) and their
attendants, and the central Buddha is the Great Illuminator, the heart of
hearts. These five circles are enclosed within a large circle, and the whole
represents the profound contemplation in which all truths of the material
and spiritual worlds are fully realized. The rectangular border enclosing
these circular groups is twofold: in the inner one are gathered the thousand
Buddhas who have appeared as leaders of mankind in the different world-
periods; and the outer one is studded with various gods of nature or of
the Hindu pantheon, such as the Sun, the Moon, Brahma, Indra, etc.
These are intended to signify that, as the leaders of men and gods, they are
the manifestations of one and the same cosmic soul, and may be compan-
ions to the souls of those who live in harmony with the cosmic life and in
communion with the Great Illuminator.
The central square contains one thousand and sixty-one figures and
shows the extremely complicated character of the mind, both cosmic and
individual; but on the other hand the mind, as a well-concentrated unity,
may be symbolized in the perfect person of the Great Illuminator. This
state of unity is represented in the upper middle square of the Diamond
Cycle, where the Great Illuminator sits alone on a lotus in an attitude of
lofty composure, surrounded by an aureola of bright flame and completely
enclosed within a circle of pure white light.1 His face is expressive of abso-
lute serenity, his posture of an inviolable dignity, and his hands are clasped
together in the gesture symbolic of full illumination. The square itself is
1 Compare Plate XIV. As already explained, one and the same deity may appear under different
aspects, and the chief difference between the various appearances is well shown in the Diamond and
Womb Cycles. The deities in the former are enclosed, as in this case, in the circle of light, while those in
the Womb Cycle have only the double aureola. In the former case the lotus is included within the circle,
while in the latter it is outside the aureola. White is predominant in the Diamond Cycle and red in the
Womb Cycle.
THE MANDALA CYCLES At
bounded by a twofold rectangular border, filled with a graceful design of
flowers and clouds instead of deities and emblems such as appear in the
borders of other squares. Here, then, in the squares of the Diamond
Cycle, we see contrasted the various aspects of the cosmic soul: its diver-
sity, as expressed in the central group of over one thousand deities, and its
unity, as embodied in the figure of the Great [lluminator.
A further illustration of this relationship between unity and diversity
is to be found in the Shingon conception of worship. Inside the larger
circle enclosed by the central square of the Diamond Cycle there are four
single figures symmetrically disposed about the group of five smaller circles
and representing respectively the Play, the Garland, the Song, and the
Dance. In addition to these there is an isolated figure in each of the four
angles of the inner border, representing the Incense, the Flower, the Lamp
and the Perfume. All are known as Indestructible Entities and are
associated with appropriate symbols. They are intended to signify the
acts of worship and adoration paid to the Great [lluminator, of whom,
however, they are manifestations; or in other words, the Great Illuminator,
the cosmic soul, adores himself by these various emanations of his own
spiritual powers, while they, the manifested Indestructibles, worship by
their respective acts the real spiritual entity and source of all emanations.
There is here represented the distinction existing between the worshipped
and the worshippers, but it is at the same time implied that the two are not
separate entities but, in reality, a unit. Thus the palpable representation
of the acts of worship symbolizes the truth that worship or adoration is
based on the spiritual ties which unite the worshippers with the wor-
shipped. He who adores the Divinity which is the consummation of his
ideals and the source of inspiration and consolation, is realizing the spirit
of that Divinity in his own soul, because his soul is in communion with,
and inspired by, the Divinity. This is the Shingon theory of worship pre-
sented as a corollary to its theory of the relation between unity and diver-
sity, and the same idea is repeated in another square to the left of the
central square in the Diamond Cycle. Here each of the deities surrounding
a central Buddha carries a lotus flower, the act of worship consisting in
ho III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
offering to various Buddhas the symbol of their own ideal purity and all-
embracing hearts. This is a further extension of worship from the specific
deity to the inclusion of all deities, and is tantamount to a development
of the idea into the act.
In the pictorial representation of this theory it is important to notice
that all the acts of worship are illustrated by what is beautiful, whether in
color or in form, in rhythm, in odor, in style or in expression. The Play is
the beauty of manner and posture; the Garland, of form and composition;
the Song, of word and metre; the Dance, of movement and rhythm; the
Flower, of color and fragrance; the Lamp, of light and warmth. Regard-
ing the Incense and the Perfume, it should be remembered that perfume
plays a great part in all Buddhist ceremonies, and that Buddhist artists
used to burn incense in their studios.! In short, these symbolic figures
typify the fundamental qualities of all branches of the fine arts and are
summed up in the emblematic lotus flower. Their title, ‘ Indestructible,”
may therefore be paraphrased by the term “Prototype,” because they
represent the ideal elements of art in the mind of the Great Hluminator.
Indeed the artistic presentation of deities and the organization of elaborate
rituals, both characteristic features of Shingon Buddhism, are embodied
in this way in two squares of the Diamond Cycle, and it is a matter of pride
among the Shingon Buddhists that they serve truth and beauty at the
same time and by the same act. In a word, the worship of Divinity should
not and cannot be dissociated from the cult of beauty, and art, therefore,
must be an integral part of religion.
Without further comment on the significance of this cosmotheistic reli-
gion, it is already plain that we see here a very comprehensive world-view
visualized in graphic representations of manifold figures and symbols.
The art of painting has become an indispensable adjunct to the religion of
cosmic communion, and inasmuch as this communion includes every kind
of existence, the pictorial representation of the universe as a whole or in
detail is necessarily made up of intricate symbolic suggestions and boldly
imaginative personifications. Subtle reasoning united with daring con-
1 In the Zen Buddhism, of which I shall speak in the fourth chapter, perfume gave place to tea; but
incense retained its own, or an even greater, réle in both the religion and the art of Zen.
PLATE XVII
Dat-IToKU-MyOWO, THE GREAT Masestic Power
PLATE XVII
Dat1-IToKU-MyOw0, THE GREAT Masestic Power
JAPANESE, TENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Autuoucu his typical figure has six faces which exhibit the
six miraculous powers, and six arms which purify the six
resorts of transmigration, he is shown in this wood sculpture
of the Fujiwara period with but three faces and two arms, the
latter joined in the mystic form of the one-pointed vajra. The
pedestal, though of early date, was not originally intended for
this statue.
SINGLE DEITIES 43
struction; high ideals expressed in terms of form and substance; figures of
exquisite grace and profound serenity mingled with shapes of terrible
power; — these are the characteristics of the Shingon religion and art.
The mind may be calmed by the dignified composure of the Great Illumi-
nator, but appalled by the all-devouring flame of the angry destroyer; and
a deity of compassionate love may appear metamorphosed into a furious
demon. Many of us would not care to look upon these dreadful figures,
and might wonder why such monstrous forms were portrayed by artists.
But to love good is to hate evil, and a deity may be represented from
either point of view. The Shingon teachers might say to us: “ You enjoy
the serene dignity of the Great Illuminator because your inmost heart is
in communion with him. You fear the stern and angry countenance of
the Immobile Deity because you have in your mind and life that which
could be chastised by his indignant sword.’’ However this may be, the art
of Shingon, though it abounds in conventional symbols and terrific figures,
is nevertheless pervaded by undeniable grandeur and harmony throughout
the whole scheme of the cosmic cycles. In many-sidedness the Shingon
religion is an eclectic system, but in the emphasis it lays upon the ideal
of communion, it is true Buddhism.
Additional illustrations of the foregoing may be drawn from the consid-
eration of some of the individual deities who find places in the cycles.
Dai-Itoku, or the Great Majestic Power, a modification of the Brahmanic
Yamantaka, the god of death, is supposed to be a metamorphosis of Monju,
the god of wisdom, and occupies an important position in the Womb
Cycle, under the central compartment. He has six faces, furious in expres-
sion and livid in color; his hair is fire; his six arms carry a spear, a sword, a
staff, a rope, bows and arrows, and he sits on a rugged rock, surrounded
by flame. This figure, dire as it is, represents the irresistible power of
death which kills all evils and vices (Plate XVII). Fudo, or the immobile
Deity, to whom I have already referred as a manifestation of the Great
Illuminator, is another example of a formidable figure; and, indeed, there
are many others who are thought to be modifications of the deities of wis-
hh III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
dom or mercy (Plate XVIII). This belief is not difficult to understand if
we consider the fact that in the human mind righteous wisdom becomes
resentful indignation when directed against wickedness, and loving kind-
ness may involve uncompromising austerity when confronted with a trans-
gression. The wisdom that comprehends all truth and allows no point
thereof to remain obscure, becomes a repressive and conquering power
when directed against ignorance and prejudice; in like manner, love em-
braces all and therefore enforces its influence upon those who would
disregard it. This is what Shingon teaches in doctrine and makes visible
in painted and sculptured representations.
Now let us see how the spirit of mercy is personified. One of the most
popular deities of mercy included in the cosmic cycles is Kwannon (Plates
XIX and XX, A, B, & C), who has already been described in his mani-
festation as the merciful All-Mother (Plate VII). His Sanskrit name,
Avalokite$vara, probably meaning On-looking Sovereign, is masculine in
gender, and though he appears sometimes as a formidable conqueror, he is
oftener and perhaps more properly shown as a deity of love and compassion,
quite feminine in the gentleness of his expression. Hence he is preémi-
nently known and worshipped as a merciful benefactor of mankind. In his
hand he carries a lotus flower; his bright hair hangs beautifully about his
shoulders, which are always draped, and the rest of his body is partly °
covered with veils and garlands. Another beloved and kindly benefactor
is Jizo, or Ksiti-garbha, the Earth-Womb (Plate X XI), who visits the
subterranean worlds where doomed spirits are suffering. He carries in his
right hand a pilgrim’s staff provided at the top with jingling rings which
serve to arouse the spirits in agony to the presence of an all-embracing
mercy, and in his left hand he holds a jewel symbolizing the inexhaustible
richness of bliss and wisdom with which he liberally endows all the desti-
tute. He appears most frequently as a monk, his shaved head encircled
by a radiant halo; and wherever he goes there spring up lotus flowers
beneath his feet.
Associated with Jiz6 as a beneficent deity is Kokuzd, or Akasa-garbha,
the Sky-Womb (Plates XXII and XXIII), also a god of wisdom. But
PLATE XVIII
AIZEN-MYOWO, THE GREAT PASSION
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"SUITe OJIUTJOP OF OATIYS 0} JaMOd oY} JO S9OINOS VIE PoT[OI}UO [Jom Woy yNG ‘BOTA
JO seoinos ofe ‘saAposmoy} 0} Ye ‘Yor suorssed oy} seztjoquiAs Aylop SIH],
uojsog ‘sjly aulg fo wnasnyy ay) uy
AYVOINGA) HINGHLENOY ATA ‘ASHNVdV if
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HIAX ALV Id
PLATE XIX
KWwANNON
JAPANESE, E1igutTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tuis heroic wood sculpture of the compassionate Bodhi-
sattva shows him in the attitude of conferring a blessing with
his right hand, while in his left he originally held a lotus. In
piety of expression and simplicity of execution the figure is
representative of the sculpture of the Tempyo period, before
ideas of complicated decoration were seriously considered,
and it is interesting to notice how strongly the influence of
Indian prototypes is maintained in the pose of the body as
well as in the attire of the loins. The arms and the free end of
drapery just below the breast are restorations, though not of
recent date.
BEATER ei 5K 8, SC,
Kwann |
PLATES XX A, XX B, & XX C
KWANNON
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, KAMAKURA PeERiop, LATE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tuts deity is believed to manifest him-
self in six, twenty-one, or thirty-three dif-
ferent forms, in order to induce enlighten-
ment and felicity in beings of various kinds.
Three of the set of six manifestations are
illustrated here.
A. Byaku-é Kwannon (Sanskrit, Pan-
dara-vasini), the White-robed, is a feminine
manifestation. Her whole body is pale
gold in tone, and is partly covered with
thin veils “like morning mists.” In her
right hand she holds a casket containing
the sacred scripture, and in her left, a
cord. She is supposed to avert disaster
in response to prayer.
B. Sho-Kwannon (Sanskrit, Arya-Avalo-
kilesvara), the Holy Compassionate Lord.
This is the most usual appearance of the
deity. In his left hand he holds a lotus
flower, symbolic of the essence of enlighten-
ment inherent in every one’s soul, which he
induces to bloom more fully by the gesture
of his right hand. On his head he wears a
crown in which is set a figure of the Buddha
Amita, Lord of the Western Paradise,
whom Kwannon serves.
C. Nyoirin Kwannon (Sanskrit, Cinta-
mani-cakra), the Lord who, having mas-
tered the secret of the Cintamani Jewel,
turns the mysterious Wheel of Truth
(Dharma-cakra). He has six arms. The
first right hand supports the chin, — an
attitude of meditation in compassion for
beings immersed in the purgatories ; the
second holds the Jewel which grants every
wish, so that response may be made to the
needs of hungry ghosts; the third holds a
rosary which redeems bestial existence; the
first left hand rests on a symbolic represen-
tation of a mountain, implying the salva-
tion of ferocious spirits (Sanskrit, Asura)
by the virtue of firmness; the second holds
a lotus which purifies mankind of all
depravities; and the third grasps the wheel
of truth which governs the cosmos and en-
lightens all beings. The crown is set with
a figure of Buddha Amita, and the lotus
pedestal rests on a rock in the sea of wisdom.
Painted in colors and gold on wooden
shrine doors.
PLATE XXI
J1z0, THE EartH-WomMB
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE calm dignity of the figure well represents the merciful
benefactor of mankind, always ready, in a spirit of compas-
sion, to give anything out of the inexhaustible jewel which he
holds in his left hand. The picture, a work of the late Kama-
kura period, shows great delicacy and freedom in spite of the
rigid iconographical rules of Shingon Buddhism.
Painted in colors and gold on silk, and mounted as a
kakemono.
ty"
Peo
iss tna bl aet
Pian xm
ae
Koxuzo, THE Sky-WomB |
PLATE XXII
Koxuz6, THE Sky-WomMB
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
He symbolizes the union of wisdom and compassion, the
two cardinal virtues of Buddha. Both of these virtues are all-
comprehensive and indestructible, like the sky; hence his
name. He wears the pentagonal crown of the five-fold wis-
dom, the wisdom which includes and penetrates all; his right
arm hangs with the palm of the hand directed toward his
worshippers, signifying unlimited giving; and the left hand
holds a lotus flower on which is deposited the jewel of inex-
haustible wealth. His double halos emit flame and his whole
body is surrounded by another halo symbolizing his immer-
sion in the all-pervading wisdom. The seven small figures
above represent the seven stars of the constellation Ursa
Major, and the nine figures below represent the sun, the *
moon, the five planets, Rahu (eclipse) and Ketu (comet,) to-
gether known as the nine heavenly bodies. All are shown
in the forms of the Hindu deities who were believed to be
the noumena of these stars. ,
Painted in gold and colors on silk and mounted as a kake-
mono.
aNA
= ie
oe
- Koxuzd, THE Sky-Womp _
PLATE XXIII
Kokuzo, THE Sky-WomB
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, LATE FouURTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A DESCRIPTION of this deity may be found in the legend
attached to Plate XXII. As depicted here he holds the
sword of wisdom in his right hand, and in the lower part of the
painting a view of Mount Asakuma, in the Yamato style,
is introduced according to the usual practice of painters
of the Kasuga school — a branch of the Yamato. The pic-
ture, dating from early Ashikaga times, is a skilful but
somewhat mechanical repetition of the conventional Rydbu
figure of Kokuzo, and is offered as a good illustration of the
Japanizing process in Buddhist art.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
PEM ey
- Monsu, THE CHARMING SPLENDOR:
)
PLATE XXIV
Monsu, THE CHARMING SPLENDOR
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, Earty FourTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE deity is shown here as a boy representing the fresh
vigor and youthful dignity of wisdom. In-his right hand he
carries a sword, emblematic of penetrating insight; and in his
left he holds a lotus flower on which a sacred. text, the store of
truth, is laid: He rides upon a lion, — his frequent associate.
The picture is a work of the late Kamakura period in which
the rules of Shingon iconography are rather loosely treated,
and the outlines much softened.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
PLATE XXV_
M ONIU, THE (CHARMING SPLENDOR
PLATE XXV
Monsvu, THE CHARMING SPLENDOR
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, KaMAKURA PERIOD, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
SEE the legend accompanying Plate XXIV. The deity is
shown here with a scroll, instead of a sword, in his right hand,
and without his lion.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
Lae
PLATE XXVI
FUGEN, THE ALL-PERVADING WISDOM
PLATE XXVI
FuGEN, THE ALL-PERVADING WISDOM
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, EARLY TWELFTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
He appears here as the Giver of Life, in a special manifesta-
tion known as Fugen En-my®, the Indestructible Existence,
a consequence of wisdom and insight. The elephant he rides
is standing on the Indestructible Wheel of the cosmos, and
has three heads, each provided with six tusks which are some-
times explained as symbolic of the subjugation of the six
sources of temptation, —i. e., the five senses and the will.
Ranged in pairs on either side are the four Guardian
Kings. The picture, originally one member of a triptych, dates
from the Fujiwara period and conforms, for the most part, to
the iconographical rules of Shingon Buddhism.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a panel.
RIAD
T
AKA
2
ee
a
i
Si
7
PLATES XXVI
PLATES XXVIT A, XXVIIT B & XXVII C
THe SHAKA TRIAD
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
WueEn Shaka Buddha (B) appears accompanied by these
two Bodhisattva, Fugen (A) on his right and Monju (C) on
his left, he is understood to be preaching the Mahayana, or
Greater Vehicle — a suggestion derived from the same source
as the Shingon symbolism, but older than the latter and not
native to it. This triptych is a work of the Ashikaga period
and is a well-preserved example of the conventional Takuma
style.
Painted in colors and gold on silk and mounted as three
kakemono.
PSS
NAO
B
ss
Cae ees
Bie xvi
A Syncretic MANDALA —
PLATE XXVIII
A SyncretTic MANDALA
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tue fundamental tenet of the Rydbu, or Syncretic, Shinto
was that every existence had two aspects, the ideal and the
actual as represented by its two cycles. This doctrine, ap-
plied to the indigenous deities of Japan, was so formulated
that every Japanese deity was explained to be a mani-
festation of a Buddhist deity. The pictorial version of this
doctrine here reproduced, represents the deities of Kasuga
temple in their Buddhist noumena: Shaka, in the centre;
Yakushi (Bhaisajya-guru), the Lord of medicine, above on
the right; Jizo, above on the left; Monju, with sword and
scripture, below on the left; and the Eleven Headed Kwan-
non, with a flask in his left hand, below on the right. In
the background above is the hill of Kasuga or Mikasa. A's
an illustration of the belief in the deity of Kasuga, the follow-
ing hymn of the eleventh century is not without interest: —
“The Deity of Mikasa hill,
Whom we worship and to whom we now pray,
Is surely looking upon us.
So long as we are blessed by him,
Sure is the prosperity of our lord,
Who rules the lands under heaven.”’
The syncretic idea dates from the eighth century, but this
mode of representation is not earlier than the twelfth century,
and the picture is a still later work of the Kamakura period.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
al _ $e
ESE
THE SYNCRETIC MANDALA 45
more important, perhaps, in this latter respect is Monju, or ManjusSri, the
Charming Splendor (Plates XXIV, XX V and XX VII C), to whom reference
has already been made as the noumenon of Dai-Itoku. He is a beautiful and
kingly youth, whose wisdom is conspicuously symbolized in the sword with
which he cuts away all doubts and perplexities. He is often shown mounted
on a lion, the emblem of valor and energy, those indispensable comple-
ments of wisdom; and he appears, too, as a youthful prince who, like wis-
dom, is ever fresh and vigorous. The associate of Monju is Fugen, or
Samantabhadra, the All-pervading Wisdom (Plates XX VI and X XVII A),
also a noble youth, who wears the crown of the fivefold wisdom, carries
a sword, or a vessel from which he pours forth the water of wisdom, and
often rides upon an elephant, the symbol of sagacity and prudence.
Inasmuch as a single deity may manifest himself in a variety of ways
limited only by the possible aspects of his character and virtues, it is obvi-
ous that the number of figures and symbols represented may be multiplied
to almost any extent. But omitting all further descriptions of them, let
us, in conclusion, follow up a related offshoot of the ideas underlying
Shingon art. At a comparatively early date the Buddhist notion that the
cosmic communion must be extended to every phase of existence and that
the deities may appear in any forms, had been applied to the indigenous
pantheon of Japan. All the Japanese gods were thus absorbed into the
Buddhist communion, each of them was explained to be but another mani-
festation of a Buddhist deity, and the result was the formation of a syn-
cretic religion called Ryobu Shinto, to which the device of the mandala,
or pictorial cycle was naturally applied. In these paintings, known as
Ryobu, or syncretic mandala (Plate XX VIII), the stars, animals, women,
semi-divine children and various other figures were mingled with Hindu
gods, and Japanese deities clad in Sino-Japanese robes like those of the
court nobles and Shinto priests, were represented side by side with Bud- _
dhist divinities and patriarchs.
The syncretic Shinto had, indeed, been in vogue before the rise of the
Ryobu mandala ; but so long as the Shingon Buddhists adhered to their
|
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46 III. BUDDHIST COSMOTHEISM
own rules in depicting their own deities, any deviation from these rules by
members of the sect was inadmissible. Nevertheless, the freer treatment
of Buddhist subjects progressed step by step, as we have seen in the works
of Eshin and his followers; and those forms of religious faith inspired by
personal devotion and not totally proscribed by tradition, suited their
artistic expression rather to indigenous than to exotic requirements, by
introducing native landscapes and life into religious pictures. This Japan-
izing process has already been discussed in connection with the Buddhist
genre painting which came into prominence during the twelfth century,
and with which the development of the Ryobu mandala was so closely
associated that artists of the Tosa and Kasuga schools worked in both
manners. The syncretic mandala itself is characterized more by charm
than by dignity, by harmony of colors rather than by brilliancy. It suc-
ceeded not only in making the Buddhist deities seem less remote, but also
in providing the Shinto deities with artistic forms; while the composition
of its background contributed, in association with the Buddhist genre
painting, to the development of a pure landscape style and to the seculari-
zation of Shingon art.
At this point we must leave behind the symbolism of the cosmic system,
with its many beautiful and dire visions, and turn at last to the realm and
ways of mankind. Our path has already led us through the delicate and
magnificent art of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as well as through
those artistic phases of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries
wherein the influence of Shingon mystery and iconography still lingered.
Now, however, we approach another branch of Buddhism which was
introduced into Japan during the thirteenth century and was destined to
have a profound effect in simplifying the then existing forms of Buddhist
thought and expression through the emphasis it laid upon the adequacy
of untrammelled nature.
PLAT
‘
et
*
By SEs
SHU
CAPE.
By Sassi, rha0-1508
Japanese, Asuikaca [pgazistic ScHOOL
Inthe Imperial Museum, Tokyo
ParnTep in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
ii
ok Be
aT
t
UAN (Mon-mukwan)
-K
N Wv-
8 es co oe a6 -
aS
Ipeat Porrrarr or BopHIDHARM
PLATE XXX
IpEAL Portrait oF BoDHIDHARMA
First Patriarncu oF ZEN BuDDHISM IN CHINA
By Mén Wou-xuan (Mon-mukwan)
CHINESE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Owned by Myoshin-ji, near Kyoto,
and now deposited in the Imperial Museum, Kyoto
Tus picture is the middle one of a set of three, the other
two, in accordance with the frequent usages of Zenists, repre-
senting things commonly met with in nature. The painter
was a Zen monk whose name, “Gateway without Doors,”
suggests the Zenist ideal of mental freedom. The poem at the
top of the picture is by Wen Li (1206-89), a Chinese monk of
Mount Tien-mu, and comments on the expression of the
patriarch to the following effect: —
“O thou solitary sage! hast thou a skin?
Then surely blood is streaming in thee.
Canst utter words?
Given a flower, what wouldst do?
Thy lips would be a drum, thy chin a banner, eh )”
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
IV
BUDDHIST NATURALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM: THE TRANSITION FROM
RELIGIOUS TO SECULAR ARTS
To illustrate the descent from the cloudy heights of mysticism to the
clearer plain of human abode, I may best begin by calling attention to a
landscape (Plate X XIX) in black and white, — like some view seen in a
dream. In the foreground are suggestions of rocks, trees and a beach, all
drawn with a few strokes, as if the artist had to spare both ink and brush.
In the background appear faint shades, probably distant precipices.
Modern critics would classify this sketch among the works of impression-
ism or idealism, and such classification may well be correct as far as it goes.
But we are concerned here less with the class to which a painting belongs
than with the religious motive which inspired the painter. In the present
instance the artist was a Buddhist monk, Sessht (1420-1506), one of the
greatest of Japanese painters; and this landscape was given by him to one
of his disciples in recognition not only of proficiency in art, but also of
spiritual attainment in Buddhist training. How, then, and in what sense
could this be a religious painting?
In order to prepare for the solution of this question, I shall ask consider-
ation for another ink drawing (Plate XXX). Here you see the face of a
man who seems to be looking at something intently. His mouth is tightly
closed, whether in a sarcastic smile or in determined resolution, one can
hardly tell, but surely in perpetual silence. A few rough, vigorous strokes
indicate that his hands are folded under a robe which covers his shoulders
and leaves his breast exposed. Simplicity and boldness of composition and
suggestiveness of line are apparent; and these technical characteristics are
so combined in the singular expression of the figure, as to indicate reserves
of strength behind the outward composure. The picture is meant to be a
portrait of Bodhidharma,' the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China.
1 Japanese, Daruma ; Chinese, Ta-mo.
48 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
He came to that country in the sixth century, and from his life and teachings
Japanese Buddhism, after the thirteenth century, derived its inspiration.
This portrait was undoubtedly based upon an older one taken from life;
but in all probability such considerations did not greatly concern the artist,
whose object was to show the face and posture typical of a man who had
attained a lofty spiritual training in the sect of Zen. It is believed also
that the simple technique and bold expression are in real accordance with
the spirit of that teaching, as well as with the ideal look of the patriarch.
As in the landscape we have just considered, so in this portrait there
prevails a mood of deep serenity resulting from the spiritual attainment
and mental purity which were identified with the “‘life-movement of the
spirit through the rhythm of things,” as Mr. Okakura has expressed it.?
This affinity of the artist’s mind for the rhythm of the world gives to his
work an air of inwardness. According to these painters, a picture should
be the soul of nature brought to a focus before the purified, spiritual eyes
of man, — the cosmic spirit embodied in a little space through a mind in
full grasp of the cosmos; and thus it is the pulsation of the cosmic rhythm
in the individual mind that gives the serenity of the “ air-rhythm”’ ? and the
pure outline of the “wind-frame.” * This religion, — though application
of the word religion to it may seem not quite-well fitted, — this Buddhist —
religion, brought to Japan through China together with its art and poetry,
was destined to supersede the Shingon mysteries and to pervade human life |
with a spirit of naturalism. |
Zen was a branch of Buddhism which laid special emphasis upon medi-
tation. Its adherents believed that to them had been directly transmitted
the spiritual illumination of Buddha, and they cultivated his method of
meditation simply and purely, without admixture of mysterious rituals
and doctrinal analysis. They had, moreover, inherited the nature-
1 Quoting from the words of the Chinese artist Hsieh Ho (Japanese, Shakaku) in The Ideals of the East,
p. 52. Hsieh Ho lived during the Southern Chi dynasty, A.p. 479-502.
2 A term expressive of spiritual vitality, nobility, and refinement. It is the first of the Six Canons of
painting formulated by Hsieh Ho.
3 This term denotes simultaneous conception and composition, and implies a free, unmannered quality
of brush work. It is a requisite of good painting demanded by the Chinese artist Wang Chung-shu of the
Sui dynasty, 589-618.
THE ZEN PRACTICE OF MEDITATION | hg
mysticism! of the Indian Buddhists which, together with the poetry of the
southern Chinese, became a source of inspiration for the artistic sense of
the Japanese. The chief effort of this sect was directed toward the attain-
ment of spiritual enlightenment through personal experience in contempla-
tion, and the effects of this practice were shown in manifestations of strong
individuality. At the same time a feeling for the tranquil beauty of nature
produced a serene “‘air-rhythm”’ of transcendence over the incidents of
human life. This somewhat paradoxical combination of individualism and
‘ transcendentalism resulted in an identification of self with the world, a
state to be realized only through insight into the heart and spirit of nature.
Passion, or even enthusiasm, is an impediment to this attainment and rea-
son is useless; the essential is intuition, which illumines the mind like a
flash in darkness, and pervades the whole air like moonlight. —
Let me elucidate these points a little further. The practitioner of Zen,
whom I might call a Zenist, takes pride in the thought that his method is
an unwritten tradition originally transmitted by Buddha to his great dis-
ciple Maha-Kasyapa, when the Master lifted a flower in his hand and the
disciple responded to the implied riddle with silence and a smile. What
question this flower was meant to convey, or why it was answered by a
smile can be realized only intuitively and in meditation. But the transmis-
sion itself is not based on Buddha’s invention or on any artifice; it traverses
the innermost recesses of the mind enlightened in the truths of nature, so
that every Zenist should receive his spiritual illumination through the |
medium of his own soul, directly from the vast sources of the cosmos. All
instruction is but as a finger pointing to the moon; and he whose gaze is
fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond. Even let him catch sight of
the moon, and still he cannot see its beauty unless his mind be innocent of
passion and commotion. In order to commune heart to heart with the
cosmos and see its reality as it is, he must first free himself from the inter-
ference of special concern and from the captivation of thought. His mind
should be purged of such encumbrances, like the mind of one who loiters
in the translucent air of night and enjoys the clear, serene moonlight,
1 On this point see especially Mrs. Rhys Davids’ The Hymns of the Early Buddhists.
50 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
calmly and freely. This is the ideal of the Zenist, to be attained through
spiritual exercise in meditation. We must, however, be careful in using the
word meditation not to mistake it for cogitation, because the Zen practice
of meditation is not a mode of deliberate reflection, not thinking in the
usual sense, but consists rather in an evacuation of the mind, a process
through which alone we can fully exercise our intuitive insight.
What, then, is to be apprehended by that intuition? Here again our
common sense stumbles and our thought is defied. A great master of Zen
said: “‘Is there obverse or reverse in transparent water? Is there inside or
outside in vacant space? There is that which is luminous and clear, spon-
taneous and disembodied. Therein is no differentiation of forms and colors;
no antithesis of object and subject. [It is] one and the same since eternity ;
no term to describe it, for ever.”’! This it is that underlies our selves, our
souls; this is the primordial essence of each and all existence. The same
master says in another passage: “See the high mountain. The summit is
hidden; yet far beyond the clouds the eyes catch the light by which it is
illumined. Look into the deep ocean. The bottom cannot be seen; yet the
depth can be penetrated without taking thought. Silence is eloquent
enough to make clear the essence; and even while sitting in repose the
cosmos can be grasped. The whole being is bare and apparent; it is that of
a colossus expanding beyond measure, — a giant without motion or emo-
tion; no twilight can impede his vision, nor any dust besmirch his feet.”
Such is the true nature of the condition which is inherent in our own souls
and is realized completely by the intuitive faculty of a mind trained in Zen.
This kind of enigmatic utterance may, however, confuse rather than
clarify the content of the Zen view. But precisely this riddle, which is a
stumbling block to every one, is what the Zenists are eager to attack and to
elucidate in their acts. The riddle of the world and life is not, they would
say, very different from other riddles which, when solved, involve nothing
extraordinary or amazing in itself, but always reveal simple truths plain
to everybody. The manner of solution, moreover, is not dependent on
! By Keizan (1268-1325) in his Zazen Yojin Ki, or “‘ What is to be kept in mind during the Zen session.”
The present translation hardly carries the “‘air-rhythm”’ of the original Chinese, which is simple and terse,
with few conjunctions or prepositions.
PLATE XXXI
SHAKA
In THE STYLE oF Kano UTANOSUKE, 1513-1575 ()
JAPANESE, KANO SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tus work of an early Kano master represents the Buddha
as a solitary recluse, in a manner characteristic of the Zen
ideals.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
4
£
PLATE XXXII
f
WHITE-ROBED Kwannon. By Kano MortTonosu
PLATE XXXII
WHITE-ROBED KWwANNON
By Kano Moronosu, 1476-1559
JAPANESE, KANo SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tue deity is here shown wrapt in meditation, in the midst
of nature, and from the idea expressed, as well as from its
manner of expression, an adequate conception may be formed
of the way in which conventional Buddhist painting was com-
bined with the freer landscape style, thus leading, by degrees,
to the secularization of Buddhist art. In this instance the
draped figure still retains much of the Buddhist convention-
ality, while the surrounding landscape reflects the influence
of the great Chinese painters of earlier times.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a panel.
THE ZEN PRACTICE OF MEDITATION DI
mathematical calculation or logical thinking, but on intuition and sagacity.
Indeed deliberation and cogitation are often embarrassments rather than
solvents, and the best plan is to approach the enigma with an artless and
unfettered mind. Whatever philosophers may say, the Zenists try to solve
the riddle of the universe in just this way.
Zen' means meditation, and its method consists in Zazen, or tranquil
session. An older contemporary of the master whose words I have already
quoted gives instructions * for this practice as follows: “‘ Arrange a seat of
matting at a suitable place and lay a cushion upon it. Then sit down cross-
legged, placing the right foot upon the left thigh and the left foot upon the
right thigh. Put on robes and a girdle not too tight and preserve their sym-
metry. Then put the right hand (palm upward) on the calf of the left leg,
lay the back of the left hand upon the palm of the right hand, and let the
tips of the two thumbs touch each other. Sit thus, keeping the body erect,
inclining neither to the right nor to the left, bending neither forward nor
backward. Let the ears be just above the shoulders and the nose be
directed toward the abdomen. Lay the tongue against the roof of the mouth
and keep the lips and teeth closed. The eyes should be kept open; the
breath should flow gently through the nostrils. When the bodily position
is thus established, exhale a deep breath; then remain seated after (having
examined the posture by) swinging the body slightly to the right and left.
Thereafter proceed to the contemplation of what is beyond thought.’ The
effect of this posture upon the mind may be tested even in sitting on a
chair. In any case the point is to maintain tranquillity of mind and to
reach a depth of introspection beyond the disturbance of outside bustle or
menta! commotion. To describe this condition is an impossibility, but from
what I have said it can be seen that Zen is a method of quietism.
Suppose, then, that the mind has attained this ideal state of repose, —
that it is quieted, poised, liberated, so to speak, — what would be the view
of life and the world seen in that condition? The Zenist looks down from
1 The word Zen is the Japanese abbreviation of the Chinese Ch‘an-no which was pronounced in old
Chinese something like Janna and was adopted as the transliteration of the Sanskrit Dhyana and the
Pali Jhana.
2 Dogen (1200-53), in his Fukwan Zazen Gi, or “‘Admonition to all in the practice of the Tranquil
Session,”
Go IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
his eminence upon human activities, as if houses and farms, men and
horses, together constituted some miniature landscape with its life and
movement.! He has no concern whatever as to whether the farms are
fertile, or as to who is gaining or losing. His mind, finding unbroken quiet
deep in the heart of nature, perceives the motion and the change in things
as fleet expressions stirring, perhaps, the profound repose of nature’s face.
In the world many are born and many die; the years roll on, the seasons
follow one after another; leaves bud out green and wither, flowers bloom
and are scattered. Let them come and go as they may; the Zenist observes
it all in cool composure, though not in stupid indifference. What interests
him is the calmly flowing aspect of this perpetual change, or, more properly,
the eternal tranquillity seen through and behind the changes. In his sight,
the beauty and grandeur of a waterfall consist in its motion as a whole,
— not in the movement of particular drops and bubbles; and it was this
motion that the Zenist enjoyed as a symbol of the general, everlasting flow
of nature. The world he sees — like the landscapes painted by Sesshu —
is without dazzling color and vivid movement. Through his mind all
phenomena are drawn into that quiet abyss of the spiritual ocean where
there are neither waves nor whirlpools, and where the individual coalesces
with the vast expanse of nature and with the unchangeable continuity of
the universe. In short, Zen is a naturalism which defies the lure of human
activities and absorbs nature and life into the all-embracing tranquillity
of the mind identified with the cosmos. . |
There is still another feature of Zen which assumes great significance in
relation not only to moral life, but also to esthetic expression. That
feature is individualism. The Zen enlightenment is a highly refined abstrac-
tion. This abstraction is not, however, a mere negation of the concrete
or a teaching of nothingness, but a transcendent view of the world. Its
attainment consists in detachment from commotion and in steadfastness
amid surrounding changes. The mind of a Zenist may be compared with a
rock upstanding from the depths of the sea, resisting and defying the per-
petual movement of the waves; it is also like the pure moonlight, some-
1 Similarly expressed by Maeterlinck in his La Sagesse et la Destinée.
ZEN ART 53
times obscured by clouds, yet never losing its purity or its power of
beautifymg whatever it illuminates.1 Strength to meet weal and woe
equally, to enjoy life and nature in absolute composure and lofty calmness,
— such is the aim of the Zen practice.
‘The soul which is not moved,
The soul which with a strong and constant calm
Takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently,
Lives in the life undying.”’ 2
Determination bordering on stubbornness, tranquillity akin to apathy,
self-continence mistakable for indifference, — therein were manifested the
results of the individualistic culture of Zen.
As a method of achieving a union of the individual soul with the cosmic
spirit, Zen training manifested itself in art of a transcendental kind. Nat- |
uralism and intuitionism enabled the Zenist not only to absorb the serenely
transient beauty of nature, but also to express it, distinct from human
passions and interests, in placid dignity and pure simplicity; while indi-
vidualism, a necessary consequence of Zen practice, found expression in a
vigor and freshness of artistic treatment implying always a touch of orig-
inal genius. Thus the esthetic sense developed by the culture consisted
essentially in disinterested observation and penetrating insight which pro-
duced a feeling of intimacy with the universe and caused man to mould
his life and taste in accordance with the
‘6
‘air-rhythm”’ of nature. Since,
however, high attainment in Zen was limited to a few men of indefatigable
persistence, the best products of its art showed an intellectual loftiness sug-
gestive of aristocracy. Yet its influence pervaded the lives of the people
and moulded their perceptions in every branch of art, — in the composi-
tion of poems, the building of houses and furnishing of rooms; in methods
of flower arrangement, of gardening, and even of preparing and drinking
tea. Indeed, there is in J apan hardly a form of thought or activity that
1 Herein lies the reason why Zenists often name themselves in terms of nature, as: Scattered-Stone,
Thousand-Stone, Oak-Shade, Cloud-Peak, Lake-Heart, Heart-Moon, Moon-Valley, Cloud-Rock, Rugged-
Precipice, Without-Cloud, etc. The name of the famous Sesshi means Snow-Boat, and there are still
others of a contradictory turn, such as Silent-Thunder, Stone-Water, etc.
2 Edwin Arnold, in The Song Celestial.
5h IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
Zen has not touched and inspired with its ideal of simple beauty. Music
and sculpture may, perhaps, be counted exceptions to this rule, probably
because to a Zenist music was too charming and sculpture too corporeal.
There was, however, a taste for lifelike representations of ideal Zenists,’
which caused some, though not many, portraits to be executed in sculp-
ture. There was, too, a special kind of bamboo flute, called shaku-hachi,
in use among groups of wandering Zen monks, known as Komu-so, or
“Vacuity Friars.” The instrument emits subdued tones whose effect is
more suggestive of inward absorption than of sentimental expression, and
is thought to be in sympathy with the hidden rhythm of the cosmic soul.
But after all, the strongest artistic expression of Zen was painting, espe-
cially in black and white.
The Zen painters drew both landscapes and figures. There are pictures
of Buddha and his disciples, of various deities and of the patriarchs, which
were painted, not as likenesses of individuals * but as types representing the
Zenist’s ideal of enlightenment personified. All deities are deprived of their
traditional glories and decorations, of their golden light and _ brilliant
colors, and appear simply as human figures, semi-naked or clad in white
robes, abiding in the midst of nature. Buddha may be shown under a tree
or among clouds, surrounded by his disciples. Here the original idea of
communion is preserved, but the master no longer preaches to his hearers
or manifests his supernatural body; he simply suggests a question, as by
holding up a flower, and leaves the solution to the by-standers. The ser-
mon is given in silence, and communion with the invisible hearers is tacitly
established. He, or one of his disciples, is painted also as a solitary recluse,
sitting in meditation, or standing wrapt in thought, or perhaps wandering
from nowhere to nowhere (Plate XX XI).
Reproduced in Plate XXXII is a picture of a lady dressed in pure
white and seated on a rock by the waterside. She seems to look at the vast
1 Due rather to the pious memory, verging on filial affection, in which Zenists held their masters, than
to the individualistic character of Zen.
2 The painting of Bodhidharma (Plate XXX) illustrates, however, a class of Zen portraits in which
individual firmness of character and tranquillity of mind are clearly indicated. The connection of Zen
training with the military life of Japan also helped to develop portrait painting, in which the vigorous
character of Zenist warriors was powerfully depicted.
| THE STYLE
\
PLATE XXXIII
KWwANNON
IN THE STYLE OF SESSHU, 1420-1506
JAPANESE, ASHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Here the deity appears in feminine form, absorbed in
meditation and seated on the back of a dragon.
Painted in ink and traces of color on paper and mounted
as a kakemono.
PLATE XXXIV
| Monsu. By Kano Tanyo —
PLATE XXXIV
Monsu
By Kano Tany6, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
JAPANESE, KANO SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE deity is here shown in semi-worldly guise as a young
prince. The picture, though sufficiently typical of its kind,
is weak in execution, and is reproduced here merely as an
illustration of the secularized Buddhist motive.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
rd
Sar
Ramee Pera =
~ a”.
beh
aac
PLATE XXXV
Monsu. By H6sEtsu
PLATE XXXV
Monsu
By Hosetsu, FirrEENTH CENTURY
JAPANESE, ASHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In this characteristic Zen work, the deity is simply shown
as an old man seated on the back of his familiar lion.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
v4
:
c
Pa
ANANDA FEEDING A Hunery GuHost
Tre ARHANT (Rakan)
By Cuovu Cut-
CHANG (SH0-xo) AND Lin T‘ING-KUEI (RIN-TEIKEI)
PLATE XXXVI
Tue ARHANT (Rakan) ANANDA FeEpInG a Hunery GHost
By Cou Cxt-cuane (Shi-kijo) anp Lin T‘tnc-Kuer (Rin-teikei)
CHINESE, TWELFTH CENTURY _
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tus story of Ananda is told in a Chinese Buddhist text and
is said to have originated the Buddhist custom of offering
food to invisible spirits.
The painting is one of a set of one hundred pictures repre-
senting the Five Hundred Arhant, executed in 1178 at Ming
Chao, for a pious dedication.
Painted in colors on silk, and mounted as a panel.
me
Ry
PLATE XXXVII
THE ARHANT (Ragan) DARBHA MALLi-PuUTRA ASCENDING TO a SKY
By Cuou Cxi-cuane (Sué-x0) ann Lin T‘inc-Kuer (Ruv-rerxer)
PLATE XXXVII
Tue ArHaAnt (Rakan) DarBHa MALLI-PUTRA ASCENDING
TO THE SKY IN CONTEMPLATION OF WATER AND FIRE
By Cuou Cut-cuHane (Shi-kijo) AND Lin’ T'tnG-KuEI (Rin-teikei)
CHINESE, TWELFTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
For the story of Darbha (Pali, Dabba), see Albert J. Ed-
munds, Buddhist and Christian Gospels (Philadelphia, 1909),
vol. 11, pp. 174-75.
The painting is one of a set of one hundred pictures repre-
senting the Five Hundred Arhant, executed in 1178 at Ming
Chao, for a pious dedication.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a panel.
ok. =
ZEN ART 55
expanse of water, or possibly she hears the melodies of the breeze singing
through the trees, overhead. This is a manifestation of the goddess of
mercy, Kwannon, to whom, under a very different aspect, I have already
referred.’ The same deity is often shown, too, sitting on a dragon among
clouds (Plate XX XIII), or standing with a branch of willow in one hand,
— seeming to be in possession of the great power of nature, or merely to
loiter in the open country, — whether with the object of enjoying the
grandeur and calmness about her or of helping others to a similar enjoy-
ment, may be left to the decision of the onlooker. In like manner, Monju,
god of wisdom, is represented as a lovely boy reading a scroll, while his
lion plays near by (Plate XX XIV), or as a weird old man seated on a lion
(Plate XX XV); and Fugen, another god of wisdom, appears as a simple
youth or as a young woman riding on an elephant. Such pictures are not
meant to be worshipped, but to give pleasure, — the pleasure of serene
composure, of pure simplicity, of the beauty of slender human figures.
Buddha’s disciples, the Rakan,? are often represented in a group against
a background of mountain scenery, each of them enjoying, silently and by
himself, the spectacle of nature presented to his illumined mind (Plates
XXXVI and XXXVII). These pictures of the Rakan are akin in spirit
and delineation to those of the Taoist hermits and sages, called in Chinese,
Hsien,’ or “ Men of the Mountains”’; and here let me say a word about the
connection between Zen and Taoism. ‘‘ The wind, Nature’s flute, sweeping
across trees and waters, sings many melodies. Even so, the Tao, the great
Mood, expresses Itself through different minds and ages yet remains ever
Itself.”’* This saying of a great Taoist master expresses the mood of the
Taoist culture, whose purpose, like that of Zen, was to overcome worldly
troubles and find an everlasting repose in the calm enjoyment of nature.
Such ideas, fostered and developed among the Chinese of the Yang-tztt
Valley, manifested their influence not only in a naturalism which involved »
1 See Plates VII, XIX and XX A, B & C. :
? Sanskrit, Arhant, which originally meant ‘the venerable”; but the Chinese Lo-han, or its Japanese
equivalent, Rakan, is associated with the men “emancipated” or living out of the world.
3 Japanese, Sennin.
4 Quoted from Chuang Tzti by Okakura, in The Ideals of the East, p. 46. See further pages 43-60 of the
same book. Tao literally means “The Way,” not in an ethical sense but something like Jakob Béhme’s
Urgrund.
56 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
an almost misanthropic abandonment of the worldly life, but also in an
individualism exemplified in the persons of many hermits who, seeking the
seclusion of forest, hill and stream, remote from human abode, indulged in
“pure conversation” among themselves, or expressed their feeling for
nature in poems of simple motive; and, immersed in these pursuits, sur-
vived to ages far beyond the lot of ordinary mortals (Plate XXXVIID.
This culture, or rather inspired unculture, is what I have already pointed
out as the associate of Zen in southern China, and in many cases a Zenist
and a Taoist cannot be distinguished.
The “Men of the Mountains”’ depicted by Zen painters are taken from
the semi-legendary poets, hermits and sages of Taoism, whose sentiment
toward nature has, in this way, permeated the art and life of the Japanese,
especially since the fourteenth century. As represented in the pictures,
one or more of these Immortals may exhibit the weird art of floating
through the sky; another projects his own image from his mouth; another
causes a horse to come out of a gourd. Yet they were admired not as mere
magicians but as embodiments of the attainment in Zen through which an
adept could spiritually perform similar feats, such as the act of “inhaling
and exhaling the whole universe at one breath,” as it is called. They were
not supernatural men; on the contrary the “Men of the Mountains” were
children of nature, and are shown amusing themselves in nature. Plates
XXXIX and XL depict two such beings, Chinese poets of the seventh
century. The one, Han-Shan,’ or “ Cool-Hill,”’ has a blank scroll, implying
that he reads the unwritten book of nature. The other, Shih-Té,? or
“Picking-up,” holds a broom, —the broom of insight, of wisdom, of tran-
scendence, — with which to brush away all the dusts of worry and trouble.
To read the book of nature: that is the ideal of Zen naturalism and intu-
itionism; to sweep off all troubles: that is the motto of Zen individualism
and transcendentalism.
In addition to such themes the Zen artists were extremely fond of paint-
ing landscapes. Of these, one specimen has been described, and all others
(Plates XLI and XLID) are similar in feeling, although, of course, there
is great variety among them in composition and in the scenes repre-
1 Japanese, Kanzan. 2 Japanese, Jitioku.
te
‘ret
cand
PLATE XXXVIII
THe THREE Laucuers or Hu-nstr (Kokei)
By Soca SHOHAKU, 1730-83
JAPANESE, Post-AsHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE social disintegration which characterized the fourth
and fifth centuries in China had the effect of causing many
able men to turn their backs upon the world and seek the
seclusion of the mountains, where they lived immersed in
their own pursuits. In the time of Hsiao Wu (373-96), tenth
Emperor of the Eastern Chin dynasty, there lived in Mount Lu
(Ro-san) a priest named Hui Yiian (L-on) who for thirty years
had fulfilled a vow never to cross the little bridge which con-
nected his retreat in Hu-hsi (Tiger Dale) with the road lead-
ing to the world he had quitted. On one occasion, however,
when his best friends, T’ao Yiian-ming (76 Enmei) and Lu
Hsiu-ching (Riku Shisei), had been visiting him and he went
to see them off, the three were so absorbed in merry talk that
the monk unconsciously crossed the bridge. Having become
aware of this they stopped and laughed together. This story
is frequently taken as a theme of Zen painting to illustrate,
_ in part, the mood of hermit life; and the sympathy with which
it is depicted in the present instance may be attributed to the
fact that the artist, a man of undoubted genius, being con-
temptuous of the degenerate art of his time, and ambitious to
revive the vigorous style of the fifteenth century, was so ridi-
culed by his contemporaries that he retired into solitude, even
as Hui Yiian had done before him.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a two-fold screen.
PEATE XXXIX
Han Suan (Kawzan) AND Sum-TA (Jirroxv)
PLATE XXXIX
Han-SuHan (Kanzan) AND Suin-TE (Jittoku)
Artist unknown
JAPANESE, LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE two Chinese poet-hermits are here depicted in a man-
ner thoroughly characteristic of the idealistic Zen painters of
Ashikaga times. The inscription above is by Sonan (1403-
89), a Zen monk, known also as Ryogen. It is written from
left to right and reads as follows: ‘‘When these two met they
could not refrain from smiling at each other. One sometimes
carried a scroll in his hand, and the other gazed at the moon,
— pointing her out. But see, in the west stands Mount O-mei
(Lofty Eyebrows) — in the north, Wu-t‘ai (Five Terraces),
and it is now ten years since these two poets departed thither.”
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
PLATE XL
Suim-Té (Jittoku)
By Ger-ami, FIFTEENTH CENTURY
JAPANESE, ASHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE recluse poet is here shown smiling at the moon. His
besom lies on the ground at his feet.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
PLATE XLI _
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.
if)
E
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i
A Cuinese LANDSCAPE.
PLATE XLI
A CuHInese LANDSCAPE
IN THE STYLE oF Soca SHotsun, Earuy Firreenta CENTURY
JAPANESE, ASHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE descriptive poem at the top of the picture is by the
Zen monk Ryititaku Ten-in, commonly known as Moku-un,
and is dated in the early summer of 1500, —the year in which
the poet died at the age of seventy-nine. It says: —
ware og an afternoon doze, he opens the lattice giving on the river
ank.
Behold the violet hills reflected in the blue expanse of water!
From above heaven looks down, as though in pity, on the solitary man;
And below on the sandy beach, a pair of water birds has come to rest.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as a kakemono.
By Josetsu
—_
ame
ae
:
:
joie
A Curvese Lanpscapr.
“Javanese, aiiee Ipeatismic poo
I n the Museum co Fine Arts, Boston oun
3
%
-Parntep i in sek on paper and mounted : as a Rakemono. cae
5 een Pag
“oes . = .
ZEN ART 57
sented. The grandeur or tranquillity of nature seen through the spiritual
eyes of one purified by long training in Zen; the changes of life and season
absorbed into the calm depth of contemplation; — such impressions the
painter strove to catch with simple, bold strokes of his brush and with
little color. Distant hills like shadows; water marked out by a few ripples;
sails and boats just dotted in; rocks and trees drawn with a few touches;
these make up a landscape. Human figures are often added to the scene,
and appear to be gazing beyond the expanse of water, or loitering in the
moonlight, or looking up at the cliffs and waterfalls. They are meant to be
Taoists or Zenists whose presence in the picture shows that they are seeing
the view as reflected in their purified minds.
This point brings us to the connection between painting and poetry in
Zen art. To the fact that Chinese characters — the written symbols
developed in China and later adopted in Japan — were originally pictures
representing objects, conditions and abstract ideas, may be attributed the
ancient regard for drawing and writing as correlated arts of equal impor-
tance, both of them executed with the same breadth and flexibility of line,
and by means of the same implement. But it was the Zenists who intensi-
fied this calligraphic affinity by expressing their characteristic sense of
nature in combinations of painting and poetry. Thus a Zen monk would
compose a poem like this: “The world is suffused with the pure moon-
light; no cloud nor dust is in the sky. The vast expanse of water reflects
the heavenly rays; and, far beyond, distant hills appear as in a dream. The
pines on the beach sing the music of the calm night; and I! stand here, my
mind absorbed into the sky and water, — melted into the one serene pale-
ness.”’ Then, under a calligraphic writing of this poem, the scene will be
depicted with the same ink and brush and in kindred strokes. For example,
among the writings mounted on the landscape of Sesshu (Plate X XIX),
there is a poem to the following effect: —
“Ts water identical with waves?
No, but the mind, that is like water!
Clouds gather in the valley and disperse again,
Whither the mind alone can follow.”
1 A Zenist would object to the personal pronouns ‘“‘I”’ and “‘my,’’ because to lose one’s self in nature
' is essential from his point of view.
58 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
Such is the usual device of the Zenist poet and painter united in one person,
and in this association of poetry and painting he exhibited again the fusion
of mind and nature.
Animal life is sometimes touched by the Zen artists, the dragon and the
tiger being their favorites. The tiger glares at the sky where the dragon is
partly seen amid the dark clouds (Plates XLIII A & XLIII B). The
earthly beast roars and the air whirls; the heavenly serpent mounts upward
through the vapors which crowd about him. In the one was seen a power
which could shake hills and rocks; in the other a power ruling the air and
heaven. Which would control the other? ‘Have you seen the dragon?”
wrote Mr. Okakura.' “Approach him cautiously, for no mortal can sur-
vive the sight of his entire body. The Eastern dragon is not the gruesome
monster of medieval imagination, but the genius of strength and goodness.
He is the spirit of change, therefore of life itself. . . . Hidden in the cav-
erns of inaccessible mountains, or coiled in the unfathomed depth of the
sea, he awaits the time when he slowly rouses himself into activity. He
unfolds himself in the storm clouds; he washes his mane in the blackness
of the seething whirlpools. His claws are in the fork of the lightning, his
scales begin to glisten in the bark of rain-swept pine trees. His voice is
heard in the hurricane which, scattering the withered leaves of the forest,
quickens a new spring. The dragon reveals himself only to vanish.” In
this contending pair the Zenists saw a graphic representation of the all-
controlling forces which break down terrestrial distinctions and fuse
together heaven and earth. This, as an aspect of their world view, is in-
herent in their practice of contemplation, which enabled them, as they
believed, to pull down the stars and uplift the mountains, — but all spirit-
ually and ideally.
I have now arrived at the stage in my exposition where I can point out
definitely the final steps in the secularization of Zen art. The dragon and
tiger may be tamed, both in the mind of a Zenist and by the brush of a
painter. They may easily be made to serve a decorative purpose, and
1 Okakura, The Awakening of Japan, pp. 77-78.
Pats STE A, XL: «
Dragon anp TIGER. ‘TOHAKU
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t
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uowsog ‘suy aul fo uunasmyy aur Oe
“TOoHOS OLLSIIVAG] VoVUIHSY-Is0q ‘ASANVAV
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| PLATE XLIV ©
A Travesty on Fucen. By KatsukawA SHuNsHO
* : pe i re
PLATE XLIV
A TRAVESTY ON FUGEN
By Katsukawa SHUNSHO (1726-92)
JAPANESE, Uxryo-& ScHooL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE deity is represented as a courtesan mounted on an ele-
phant standing among clouds which arise from incense said to
be endowed with the magic power of revealing to any man the
image of his dead or ideal beloved. Above is a didactic inscrip-
tion by Kato Chikage (1735-1806), a scholar in the Japanese
classics. It alludes to the Buddhist doctrine of non-attach-
ment, and is intended as a comment on the picture from that
point of view, inasmuch as Fugen is the god of wisdom who
dispels the illusion of vain attachment. It says: “Sometimes,
allured by beauty one feels passionate attachment (to a wo-
man) ; sometimes, attracted by a voice, one becomes ensnared
in love, which, being pondered in the mind and expressed by
the mouth, intensifies illusory ideas. Indeed, all men are
charmed by the objects of the senses, and commit sins by
the organs. Thus the soul is deluded by what is seen or
heard.”’ This is a weak echo of Buddhist teaching, written in
a pleasure-loving age and added to a picture of entirely
worldly motive.
Painted in colors on silk and mounted as a kakemono.
PLATE XLV
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PLATE XLV
A TRAVESTY ON Han—-SHAN (Kanzan) ANpD
Snim-TE (Jittoku)
By KatsuKAwa SHUNSHO (1726-92)
JAPANESE, Uxktyo-& ScHOOL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THE two poet-hermits are here represented as women: one
reading a love-letter instead of the blank scroll peculiar to
Han-Shan; the other holding an ordinary indoor broom in-
stead of the besom carried by Shih-Té.
Painted in colors on silk and. mounted as a kakemono.
ne EOE EE
THE SECULARIZATION OF ZEN ART 59
indeed the Zen temples show various examples of dragons so used. More-
over, a Zen landscape may be enjoyed by any man, if not exactly in the
spirit in which it was painted, then simply as a picture of nature’s beauty.
Representations of the saints, hermits and deities may be regarded as mere
human figures in interesting, if not weird, postures, and may attract many
art lovers, almost apart from the associated stories of attainment in Zen
enlightenment. Thus it was only one step from this idealistic art to a
romantic art and thence to an art of realistic motive. The landscape of
Zen painting became a strong incentive to, and model for, the secular
landscape and was further applied to decorative art. The human figures of
manifold attitudes were transformed to the uses of worldly life. A tempo-
ral form of the god of wisdom has already been referred to (Plate XX XIV),
and I can add many other examples of similar sort, such as Daruma
soothed by a woman, or the Rakan at play. These are cases in which a
secularization of Buddhist art is indeed apparent; but the process was
carried so far by the later genre painters that Fugen came to be represented
as a courtesan reading a love-letter (Plate XLIV), and Kwannon as a
maid coming from the market with her basket of fish.1 Such pictures are
manifest instances of sacrilege against the Zen ideal (Plate XLV); but
on the other hand there was a more serious secularization which, though
worldly in content, nevertheless retained, in composition and brush
strokes, the “wind-frame” of Zen painting. In Japan this is first notice-
able among works by Kano Masanobu (died 1490?) and his son Motonobu
(1475-1559), and has been perpetuated by their descendants of the Kano
Academy, an idealistic school with strong romantic tendencies. Another
movement in the same direction was the purely decorative school of paint-
ing and lacquer work which derived much of its inspiration and method
from the mediaeval genre, and found immortality in the masterpieces of
Koetsu (1556-1637) and Korin (1658-1716). This, however, is not the
place for a detailed account of these two schools, whose influence is still a
1 This kind of simplifying and secularization had been in vogue in China since the twelfth century, and
so long as it retained the technique of simple ink drawing it was in accordance with the spirit of Zen. But
when the figure was adapted to genre painting and filled in with decorative coloring, it became totally
profane. The legend of Fugen appearing as a courtesan in order to convert her suitors to religion is pretty
old, and the inscription shown in Plate XLIV retains a trace of the old legend.
60 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
formative factor in Japanese art; but it is important to observe that they
expressed what may be called the naturalization of Zen art in Japan, or in
other words the encroachment, on Zen idealism, of the Japanese feeling for
life and nature, not in abstract transcendence, but in visible concrete-
ness (Plates XLVI and XLVII). Here, surely, was a deviation from the
original spirit of Zen, but being in no sense revolutionary, the change
was carried out almost imperceptibly by natural adaptation of spirit and
method.
In this connection we must note the altered form of Buddhist doctrine
which became the faith of the whole Kano family as well as of Koetsu and
his followers. The new creed was started in the thirteenth century by the
monk Nichiren, and was founded on a broad ambition to unite the best
thought of all religions existing in Japan through the teachings of the
“Lotus of Truth.” ? This scheme of Buddhist reform was replete with
national ideas and laid stress on the necessity and possibility of transform-
ing the actual world into a paradise, — an ideal kingdom of perfection.
Though we are not as yet able to point out the intrinsic connection of this
Buddhism with the art of the Kano and Koetsu schools, it is none the less
remarkable that Kano Motonobu worked on the decoration of the holy-of-
holies of the Nichiren church, and that Koetsu, himself a doctor of Nichi-
renite dogmatics, dedicated his abode to the service of a Nichirenite mon-
astery. What Fenollosa says* about the Koetsu school, may be applied,
in a religious sense, to a description of Nichirenism: “It is neither realism
nor idealism, as we ordinarily misuse these words; it attempts to give an
overmastering impression, a feeling vague and peculiarly Japanese, as if
the whole past of the race with all its passions and love surged back in a
gigantic race memory inwrought in the inherited nerves — a patriotism as
gorgeous and free and colossal as one’s grandest dreams.’’ Indeed, Nichi-
ren was a great visionary, the prophet of a universal Buddhist Church and,
at the same time, a hero of national spirit; and it can hardly be a far-
1 These points are dealt with in the author’s forthcoming book on Japanese Art in its Relation to Social
Life.
2 See chapter 1.
3 Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art, vol. 11, pp. 127-28.
PLATE XLVI
A CoRMORANT
By Mryamoto Musasui, 1582-1645
JAPANESE, Post-ASHIKAGA IDEALISTIC SCHOOL
In the possession of Viscount Matsudaira
Tuts picture, done with so few strokes, achieves a greater
interest from the fact that the painter was a famous master of
fencing in whose mind the art of the brush and the art of the
sword were fused together by his Zen training.
Painted in ink on paper and mounted as one panel of a
six-fold screen.
co
are
Bie 0 iy ee 00, eee
SPARROW AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS. By KENZAN
PLATE XLVII
SPARROW AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS
By Kenzan, 1663-1743
_ JAPANESE, KOETSU ScHooL
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
ParnTep in pale colors on paper and mounted as a kake-
mono. PON eae E
oe
THE SECULARIZATION OF ZEN ART 61
fetched interpretation to see in the vigorous national style of the Kanos
and of the K6etsu school an influence of their new faith.
Thus the secularization of Zen art proceeded by absorption of the Zenist
spirit into daily life, which, in turn, was purified and elevated by religious
and esthetic inspiration. The Zenist would say, in self-confidence, that
moonlight could, without lessening its purity and brilliance, penetrate
everywhere and be reflected even from dust. The pure moonlight of the
Zenist enlightenment permeated every corner of social and domestic exist-
ence, primarily through tea and its art, what Mr. Okakura has called
“Teaism.” ? Tea is believed to be a calming drink, and the Zenists used to
take it sitting in a quiet room around a little hearth let into the floor as a
convenience for boiling water. This meeting of those who were united in
the cult of serenity became a manifestation of the religion of beauty, —
the beauty which lies in subdued tone and tranquil mood. The tea-room
was, perhaps, tiny, but it was always scrupulously clean and furnished in
the simplest way. Similarly the garden, as well as the trees and stones in it,
were arranged in accordance with the “air-rhythm”’ of the mind purified
by Zen culture. On one side of the room there was a little alcove, dedicated
to the cosmic spirit of simple beauty, wherein a small landscape painting
or a calligraphic poem-writing was hung. The smoke of incense rose in the
dusk of this space, the incense which never irritated the senses but enabled
one to inhale the essence of delicacy and composure. A little gong sum-
moned the guests to this tiny chapel of purity; they proceeded quietly and
glided into it; then they drank cups of tea amid surroundings of the utmost
calmness. There they would talk only of things outside the world, “wind
99 66
and moon,” ‘‘air and stream,”’ or anything else which might help to pacify
their minds.
The spirit of Zen manifested in Teaism penetrated into the households
1 As this point was never touched by art critics until my friend T. Sasakawa called attention to it, the
inherent connection between Nichirenism and the Japanese schools of painting now awaits further re-
search and more definite elucidation. The work done by Kano Motonobu at Minobu, the sacred place of
Nichirenite Buddhism, perished in a fire; but there is, I imagine, still a trace of the great Kano master in
the wall paintings of lotus flowers decorating the chapel of Minobu where the relics of the Prophet are
piously preserved.
2 Mr. Okakura’s The Book of Tea, which the present description faintly reflects, is an admirable intro-
duction to the spirit of Teaism.
62 IV. BUDDHIST NATURALISM
of nobles and peasants alike. Every Japanese house is built in a style more
or less affected by the atmosphere of the tea-room, and in the main rooms
are always the alcoves, the shrines of simple beauty. Beside a picture hang-
ing within, there may be an incense pot, a flower vase, a few scrolls; all
other furniture is carefully excluded. A family may possess a rich collec-
tion of paintings; but only one or a pair, at most a set of three, would be
admitted inaroom. The house and its chambers should not be used for
an exhibition of art works, because real enjoyment of art should be con-
centrated on a few precious pieces. The garden, its trees and stone lan-
terns, the pot for washing-water usually standing on a stone alongside the
veranda, even the interior of a latrine, in short, everything that is within or
around the house, ought to partake of the purity of the chapel and express
in its own way the adoration of nature’s beauty. Thus the art of Zen was
secularized; thus, too, the abodes of man were purified; and throughout
we see the Buddhist ideal of communion, no longer made sensible in
temples and statues, in ceremonies and rituals, but manifested in the
homes of human beings, as a religion of simple beauty, — a cult of nature
and of spiritual life.
THE END
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os
pe
:
INDEX
INDEX
Achala, 34. See also Fud6 and Immobile Deity.
Achilles, 12.
Esop’s Fables, 7 (note).
Air-rhythm, 48, 49, 50 (note), 53, 61.
Aizen (Raga), Pl. XVIII.
Akaéa-garbha, 44. See also Kokuzo.
Alexander, 12.
Amatampadam. See Pathway to Immortality.
Amita (Amitabha, Amitayus, Amida), 26/f.; Pls.
XI-XIII, XX.
A-nan. See Ananda.
Ananda, Pls. II, IV A, XXXVI.
Apollo, r2.
Arhant, 55 (note); Pls. XXXVI, XXXVII. See
also Rakan and Lo-han.
Asoka, King, 5, 11; Pl. IIT.
Asura, Pl. XX.
AvalokiteSvara, 44; Pls. II, XX. See also Kwahnon.
Benares. See Kasi.
Bhaisajya-guru. See Yakushi.
Bhaisajya-raja, Pl. II.
Bharhat, 11; Pl. IT.
Bija. See Shuji.
Birushana. See Vairochana.
Bodhi, 3 (note), 11, 19.
Bodhidharma, 47, 54 (note); Pl. XXX. See also
Daruma.
Bodhisattva, 14,15, 17,28; Pls. II, XI, XIX, X XVI.
Bodhi tree, 3 (note), 11; Pl. III.
Bonten. See Brahma.
Bosatsu. See Bodhisattva.
Bo tree. See Bodhi tree.
Brahma, 3, 4 (note), 12, 25, fo; Pl. X.
Buddha, 2, 3, and passim. See also Sakya-muni
and Shaka.
Buddha-land, 15.
Buddhas, 15, 23, 34, 4o, 42; Pl. II. See also Dhyani-
buddha.
Byodo-in, 27.
Byzantine, 25 (note).
Caitaka. See Seitaka.
Caitya, 10.
Cakra. See Wheel.
Ch‘an-no. See Zen.
Chén-yen. See Shingon
Ch‘a-yeh. See Maha-KaSyapa.
China, 5, 12, 13, 25, 26, 32, 48, 56, 57, 59 (note);
Pls. II, VI, XX XVIII.
Chinkai, Pl. VI.
Chou Chi-chang, Pls. XXXVI, XXXVII.
Christ, 6, 14 (nofe).
Chuang Tzt, 55 (note).
Cintamani, Pl. XX.
Dai-Itoku (Yamantaka), 43, 45; Pl. XVII.
Dai-nichi (Maha-Vairochana), 32, 37, 4o, 41; PI.
XIV. See also Great Illuminator.
Dance, The (Vajra-nrti), 41-42.
Dante, 6, 28.
Darbha Malli-putra, Pl. XX XVII.
| Dragon, 55; Pls. XV, XXXIII;
Daruma, 47 (note), 59. See also Bodhidharma.
Dedication (parinamana, ek), 9, 10; Pls. II,
XXXVI, XX XVII.
Dharma, 4, 19.
Dharma-cakra. See Wheel of Truth.
Dharmata, 14 (note).
Dhrtarastra. See Jikoku-ten.
Dhyana. See Zen.
Dhyani-buddha, 4o.
rene Cycle (Vajra-dhatu), 39-42; Pls. XIV,
Dogen, 51 (note).
and tiger, 58;
Pl. XLII A & B.
Egypt, 5.
Ekayana, 8. See also Sole Road.
Eko. See Dedication.
Elephant, 8, g (note), 11, 55; Pls. III, XXVI,
XLIV.
E-on. See Hui Yiian.
Eshin, Abbot (Genshin), 27/f., 46; Pls. I, XI.
Evil Ones, Pl. III. See also Temptations.
Fechner, G. T., 32.
Fenollosa, E. F., 60.
Field of Merits (puffta-kkhetta,
fuku-den), to.
Flower, The (Vajra-puspa), 41-42.
Fra Angelico, 28.
Francis, St., of Assisi, 6.
Fudo (Achala), 34, 37, 43; Pl. XV.
Fugen (Samantabhadra), 45, 55, 59; Pls. XXVI,
XXVIII A, XLIV.
Fuku-den. See Field of Merits.
Gandhara, Pl. IV.
Garland, The (Vajra-mala), 41-42.
Gaya (Buddha-gaya), 3, 11.
Gei-ami, Pl. XL.
Genre painting, 29-30, 46, 59.
Genshin. See fishin,
Giotto, 6.
Golden Hall (Kondo), 15, 21; Pls. V, VIII A.
Great Assembly. See Maha-samaya.
Great Illuminator (Maha-Vairochana), 32-35, 37,
39-43; Pl. XVI. See also Dai-nichi.
Greater Vehicle. See Mahayana.
Greece, 5.
Greek, 12-13, 23.
Guardian Kings (Shi-tennd), 21, 24; Pls. IX,
XXVI.
Han-Shan (Kanzan), 56; Pls. XX XIX, XLV.
Himalayas, 2.
Hinayana, 13 (note).
Hindu, 25, 31, 4o, 45.
Hirotaka, Kosé no, 29 (note).
Hogai, Kano, 17-18; Pl. VII.
Hokké-do, 17, 23, 24-25; Pls. VI, VIII B.
Hokké-kyo. See Lotus of Truth, The.
Hokké-mandala, 17, 23; Pl. VI.
punya-ksetra,
79 INDEX
Horyu-ji, 15, 22; Pls. II, V, VIII A.
HoOsetsu, Pl. XXXV.
Hsiao Wu, Pl. XX XVIII.
Hsieh Ho, 48 (note).
Hsien, 55. See also Men of the Mountains.
Hui Yiian, Pl. XX XVIII.
Ichiji-kinrin, Pl. XIV. See also Dai-nichi.
Illuminator. (See Vairochana); the Great
(see Great Illuminator).
Immobile Deity, 34, 37, 43. See also Achala and
Fudo.
Incense, The (Vajra-dhiipa), 41-42.
Indestructibles (Vajra), 41-42.
India, 2, 5, 8, 12, 19, 25; Pl. VI.
Indian, Pls. II, VI, XIX.
Indra, 12, 25, 4o; Pl. IV A.
Japan, 12, 13, 19 ff., 26, 32, 48, 57; Pl. IIL.
Jewel (Ratna), 39; Pl. XXI. See also Cintamani.
Jikoku-ten (Dhrtarastra), Pl. IX (legend).
Jittoku. See Shih-Té.
Jiz6 (Ksiti-garbha), 44; Pls. XXI, XXVIII.
Josetsu, Pl. XLII.
Kaidan-in, 23, 24.
Kakemono, 29 (note).
Kano school, 59-61.
Kanshin, Pl. VI.
Kanzan. See Han-Shan.
Kapilavastu, 2.
Kasi (Benares), 4.
Kasuga, 23; Pl. XXVIII.
Kasuga school, 46; Pl. XXIII.
Kato Chikage, Pl. XLIV.
Kaurikara. See Kurikara.
Keizan, 50 (note).
Kenzan, Pl. XLVII.
Ketu, Pl. XXII.
Kinkara. See Konkara.
Koetsu, 59-61.
Kokei (Hu-hsi). See Laughers of Hu-hsi, The three.
Kokuzo (AkaSa-garbha), 44; Pls. XXII, XXIII.
Komoku-ten (Virtipaksa), Pl. IX A.
Komu-so, 54.
Kondo. See Golden Hall.
Kongo-kai. See Diamond Cycle.
Konkara (Kinkara), Pl. XV.
Korea, 12, 19; Pl. IL.
Korin, 59.
Ksiti-garbha, 44. See also Jizo.
Kuan Yin (AvalokiteSvara, Kwannon), 17 (note);
Pl. If. See also Kwannon.
Kudara. See Pekché.
Kurikara (Kaurikara?), Pl. XV.
Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, Kuan Yin), 17-18, 28,
4h, 55, 59; Pls.I, VII, XIII, XIX, XX, XXVIII,
XXXII, XXXIIT. See also Avalokitegvara.
Lamp, The (Vajra-aloka), 41-42.
Landscape, 47, 56-57; Pl. XXIX, XLI, XLII.
Laughers of Hu-hsi, The three, Pl. XX XVIII.
Lesser Vehicle. See Hinayana.
Lin T‘ing-kuei, Pls. XXXVI, XXXVILI.
Lion, 8, 9 (note), 11, 55; Pls. XXIV, XXXV.
Lo-han, 55 (note). See also Rakan.
Lotus, 4, 11, 15, 24, 39; Pl. XX B.
Lotus of Truth, The (Sad-dharma-pundarika,
Hokké-ky3), 4 (note), 6, 15ff. 60; Pl. II (legend).
Lu Hsiu-ching, Pl. XX XVIII.
Maha-Kasyapa, 49; Pl. II.
Maha-samaya, 13.
Maha-Sthanaprapta. See Seishi. ,
Maha-Vairochana, 32; Pl. XV. See also Dai-nichi
and Great Illuminator.
Mahayana, 13ff, 26; Pl. XX VII (legend).
Makimono, 29 (note).
Mandala, 15, 38-42, 45-46; Pls. VI, XVI, XXVIII.
ManjuSri, 45. See also Monju.
Mantra. See Shingon.
Mara. See Evil Ones and Temptations.
Masanobu, Kano, 59.
Maurya. See Peacocks.
Men of the Mountains (Hsien, Sennin), 55-56.
Mén Wu-kuan, Pl. XXX.
Mikasa, Pl. XXVIII.
Minobu, 61 (note).
Miyamoto Musashi, Pl. XLVI.
Moku-un. See Ryiitaku Ten-in.
Monju_ (Manjusri), 43-44, 45, 55; Pls. XXIV,
XXV, XXVII C, XXVIII, XXXIV, XXXV.
Moon, The, 4o; Pl. XXII.
Motonobu, Kano, 59-60, 61 (note); Pl. XXXII.
Nara, 15 (note), 17 (note), 22, 23, 25 (note).
Nepal, 13 (nofe).
Nichiren, 60-61.
Nirvana, 8; Pl. IV A.
Okakura, Kakuzo, 48, 55, 58, 61.
Osaka, 22.
Padma-pani, Pl. IT.
Parinamana. See Dedication.
Patanijali, Pl. XVI (legend).
Pathway to Immortality (amatam padam), 8.
Peacocks (Maurya), Pl. III.
Pekché, King of, 19.
Perfume, The (Vajra-gandha), 41-42.
Persian, 25 (note), 31.
Phoenix Hall, (How6-d5), 27.
Planets, Pl. XXII.
Play, The (Vajra-lasa), 41-42.
Prabhtta-ratna, Pl. IT.
Pufifia-kkhetta. See Field of Merits.
Punya-ksetra. See Field of Merits.
Raga. See Aizen.
Rahu, Pl. XXII.
Raiko-ji, 29 (note).
Rakan (Arhant, Lo-han), 55, 59. See also Arhant.
Ratna. See Jewel.
Riku Shiisei. See Lu Hsiu-ching.
Rin-teikei. See Lin T‘ing-kuei.
Roben, Abbot, 25 (note).
Ryobu Mandala, 45-46. See also Syncretic Man-
dala.
Ryobu Shinto, 45-46; Pl. XXVIII.
Ryogen. See Sonan.
Ryitaku Ten-in, Pl. XLI.
Sad-dharma-pundarika. See Lotus of Truth, The.
tie clan, 2, 8.
akya-muni, Pls. II, VI. SeealsoShaka and Buddha.
Samantabhadra, 45. See also Fugen.
Sanchi, 11; Pls. II, III.
Sangha, 4, 5.
Sasakawa, T., 61 (note).
Seishi (Maha-Sthanaprapta), 28; Pls. I, XIII.
Seitaka (Caitaka>), Pl. XV.
INDEX 73
Sennin. See Hsien and Men of the Mountains.
Sesshii, 47, 52, 53 (note), 57; Pl. XXIX, XX XIII.
Shaka, Pls. XX VII B, XXVIII, XXXI. See also
Buddha and Sak ya-muni.
Shakaku. See Hsieh Ho.
Shaku-hachi, 54.
Shih-chia. See Sakya-muni.
Shih-Té (Jittoku), 56; Pls. XX XIX, XL, XLV.
Shingon (Mantra, Chén-yen), 26, 31-6, 48; Pls.
XVI, XXI, XXIV, XXVI.
Shinto, hb-L6.
Shi-tenno. See Guardian Kings.
Shohaku, Soga, Pl. XX XVIII.
Shomu, Emperor, 25.
ShOs0-in, 25 (note).
Shotoku, Prince, 20ff.
Shubun, Soga, Pl. XLI.
Shuji (Bija), Pl. XVI.
Shu-kijo. See Chou Chi-chang.
Shunsho, Katsukawa, Pls. XLIV, XLV.
Sole Road (Ekayana), 8, 10, 16.
Sonan, Pl. XX XIX.
Song, The (Vajra-giti), 41-f2.
Stupa (Thuipa, Tope), 10, 16; Pl. III.
Suiko, Empress, 20.
Sukhavati-vytha, 26/f.
Sun, The, 40; Pl. XXII.
Syncretic Mandala, Pl. XXVIII. See also Rydbu
Mandala.
Taizo-kai. See Womb-Store Cycle.
Takuma school, 27; Pl. XX VII.
Tamenari, Takuma, 27.
Ta-mo. See Bodhidharma and Daruma.
Tamon-ten (Vaisravana), Pl. [X (legend).
Tanyo, Kano, Pl. XXXIV.
Taoism, 55-57.
T‘ao Yiian-ming, Pl. XX XVIII.
Tathagata, 3, 4. See also Truth-winner.
Tea, 42 (note), 61-62.
Temptations, The, Pl. [IV B.
Tempyo, 22-26; Pl. XIX.
Tenno-ji, 22.
Three Treasures, The (Tri-ratna, Ratna-traya,
Sambo), 5, 20, 2
Tibet, 13 (note).
Tiger. See Dragon.
To Enmei. See T‘ao Yiian-ming.
Todai-ji, 23ff; Pls. VI, VIII B.
Tohaku, Hasegawa, Pl. XLIII.
To-pao. See Prabhitta-ratna.
Tosa school, 46.
Tranquil Session (Zazen), 51.
Truth, 16. See also Dharma and Dharmata.
Truth-winner (Tathagata), 3-5, 8
Unkei school, Pl. XIII.
Ursa Major, Pl. XXII.
Utanosuke, Kano, Pl. XX XI.
Vacuity Friars (Komu-so), 54.
Meee (Lochana, Birushana or Rushana),
23.
Vaisravana. See Tamon-ten.
Vajra, 39, 41-42; Pl. XVII, XVIII. See also Indes-
tructibles.
Vajra-pani, Pl. II.
Vimaladatta, King, Pl. II.
Virudhaka. See Zoch6-ten.
Viripaksa. See Komoku-ten.
Vulture Peak (Ghrdhra-kiita, Rydju-sen), 17.
Wang Chung-shu, 48 (note).
Wen Li, Pl. XXX
Wheel of Truth, The (Dharma-cakra), 4; Pl. XX.
Wheel (Cakra), 11-12; Pl. X XVI.
Willow, 18.
Wind: franio 48, 5g.
Womb-Store Crake (Garbha-kuksi), 39-43; Pl. XVI.
Yaku-o. See Bhaisajya-raja.
Yakushi (Bhaisajya-guru), Pl. XXVIII.
Yamantaka, 43. See also Dai-Itoku.
Yamato school, Pl. XXIII.
Yao-wang. See Bhaisajya-raja.
Zazen, 5o (note), 51.
Zen, 42 (note), 47-62; Pls. XXX,
XXXV, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLVI.
Zend-Avesta, 32.
Zeus, 12.
Zocho-ten (Viridhaka), Pl. IX B.
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